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Stream a killer split from two Oakland bands and get a detailed report of what’s going on with metal on their side of the Bay. 

This week, restless doom lords Lycus will release their mesmerizing second full-length, Chasms, and to celebrate, we wanted to give the band a chance to sound off about their year in the run-up to the new album.

Since the release of Aluk Todolo’s 2012 album (Occult Rock, natch), the band have been burrowing further into their sound, and now, on the eve of the release of fourth full-length Voix, they treat us to a preview of their rhythmic, dissonant approach.

With a name like Brimstone Coven, it better be good. Hailing from West Virginia, Brimstone Coven take on throwback metal–the kind with real singing–and summon it full-throttle into the present. Rife with roving, mountain-sized riffs that are festooned in fuzz and cleverly populated with harmonious vocals–think vintage Ozzy meets John Lawton–, the group’s new album, Black Magic, represents the new era of ’70s-inspired metal. So, sit back, burn some incense, turn down the lights. It’s Brimstone Coven time.

I’m no more or less happy to drink my way across tonight’s hallowed boundary between old and soon-to-be-old than I have been any other year.  I’m certainly more than willing to present you with five of this year’s best blog posts.

This year, French label Les Acteurs de L’Ombre launched Emanations, a division meant to spotlight emerging local talent with limited cassette and CD releases, and several interesting recordings have surfaced as a result.

This Decibel scribe has always fallen horned-head-over-cloven-heels for the frozen-horror lullabies crafted under the Lustre moniker.  In about three weeks, Nachtzeit will release an EP of self-proclaimed regressive black metal that strips any conceit of beauty or complexity from his other work and rages bleakly in the northern darkness.

In the grand tradition of Karma to Burn, QotSA and taking the re-bar solidness of the Swiss rock/metal scene as irreverent artistic influence comes instrumental/power/stoner trio, Dog Days. 

Chicago prog metal unit Dissona will soon release their second full-length scorcher Paleopneumatic.  The album wormhole-hops through myriad styles and instrument combinatorial choices; the overall effect is a twisted journey through a musical landscape molded by dudes who really know their shit.

We spoke with Mark Kloeppel of Baltimore’s Misery Index about his band’s contribution to the Flexi Series.  Misery Index’s song – a cover of Sepultura’s “Primitive Future” – can be found in our current issue (#135, January 2016, Lamb of God cover), but you can also check it out right here while you read Kloeppel’s comments on the recording’s origins and execution.

Among 2015’s other contenders, five curried nearly enough votes to make it onto our list… but only nearly.  Does that mean we shouldn’t spill some love-ink for them?  Hell no!  Here’s the five records that tied for #41 on our Top 40 Albums of 2015.

Metal has a vast expanse of space that it calls its popularity continuum, and I, admittedly, have no idea where Finland’s Re-Armed would be located along this stretch of real estate. However, the band  recently returned from a three-week tour of China. We quiz vocalist Jouni Matilainen and bassist Juhana ‘Bobo’ Heinonen about their latest adventure.

In 1996, Cryptopsy bled out None So Vile, an album brimming with technical ability that nevertheless always feels a half-second away from fraying, fragmenting and falling apart.  That energy, along with all the musical acumen on display, made sure that None So Vile wound up in our Hall of Fame four years ago.

The Mantle is a superb front-to-back mood piece, a turn-of-the-millennium meditation on thoroughly American frontier sensibilities with a metallic foil.

Three of the band’s best-loved albums (Pope On A Rope, Toilet Slave and War Of The Superbikes II) will be released in limited run vinyl pressings from three separate labels.  Come learn how to win copies. 

The Decibel Hall Of Fame inductee (along with the rest of Agnostic Front for Cause For Alarm) talked to us earlier this year about the old New York and his new life thousands of miles away in Arizona.

Washington, D.C.’s Free Children of Earth singer/guitarist/lyricist Jason Yawn has a lot on his mind and we wanted to not only stream his band’s new album, Terminal Stasis this week on the blog, but also give Yawn a forum to deliver a track-by-track explanation and analysis which, despite your opinion and position on the matters at hand, make for some excellent and thoughtful reading.

The quartet blend crusty tone, thick hum and lingering melancholy melodies perfect for a midnight stroll through a personal cosmic abyss, while also answering the perennial question: “What is Monte McCleery, the bassist from Samothrace, up to these days?”  He’s up to Un, but on guitars and vocals here.

It’s the most wonderful time of year! The end of the year, in which we launch a million anonymous online arguments over our Top 40 Albums of 2015. 

At Decibel, we’re always on the lookout for hot new blood or more Iron Maiden, and Indian black metal blasphemers Heathen Beast sate our desire for the former quite well.

Abrasive and prickly purveyors of violently noisy hardcore, Great Falls have a new album out entitled The Fever Shed. Hit the big orange arrow somewhere below and you can have it peel the paint off the walls of whatever asylum you’re presently rotting in.

I’ve always been interested in the dynamic of bands with siblings in the line-up. How those who shared so much of their entire lives come together creatively, the bond they have, how they work together, how things are managed when non-relatives are brought into the picture and so on and so forth. KEN Mode, Valkyrie, Gojira, Skeletonwitch, Obituary, Sepultura, Oasis, Heart…the list goes on and on. Now, you can add Colorado black metal entity, Helleborus to the list.

Tell us what hardcore album should be inducted into the HOF next, win an album. Good deal!

This week, get a sneak peek (okay, a nine-minute stare) at one of the crushing hymns from Songs III, “Abandoned by the Light.”

Stream Cryptopsy’s new song and read a Q&A with the band. 

Sure, the more populous mid-Atlantic cities are a safer bet for metal acts looking to earn a decent night’s pay, but Frederick, MD has been starved long enough for our underground metal love to get passionate and sloppy.  Look at what happens when Napalm Death and friends drop by.

Settle in for a completely unsatisfactory arrangement of Prowler’s tracks that is based entirely on my compulsive need for complete strangers to agree with my opinions.

Apotheosynthesis is an atmospheric tech death monstrosity that batters ears and uplifts the soul… or is it the other way ’round?

Tech death with a conceptual edge unearths that which lies hidden.

A bit back, I wrote a piece on our blog about how women are treated in metal, and I learned a lot from the experience. The main takeaway? Holy shit, are there a lot of stupid people out there.