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Our friends at The Mylene Sheath are not messing around in 2015 (not that they did before). The label’s first release will be Heiress‘s sophomore effort, Of Great Sorrow, and happens to have been recorded by none other than Tad fucking Doyle. Not only should you check out a few tracks below, but don’t miss…

Decibel is stoked to premiere “To The Devil…A Daughter,” a track from the debut Wolfpack 44 album The Scourge, featuring additional vocals from Jinx Dawson, frontwoman of the legendary occult band Coven. Coven also released a version of the song on their latest album Jinx (Nevoc Music). Dawson wrote the lyrics, and Wolfpack 44 guitarist…

Seminal American black metal band VON has been very active ever since reuniting in 2010, following an 18-year absence. If you know your USBM, you’ll know that a pair of full-length albums, 2012’s Satanic Blood and 2013’s Dark Gods: Seven Billion Slaves, and you should know that there’s plenty more on the way. Not only…

“. . . tapes mean less risk, warm sound and affordability.” This installment of Through a Speaker Rumbly features a Q&A with Caligari Records owner, Hansel Merchor. Merchor has been running Caligari Records for about two years now and, in that short amount of time, besides having accumulated hundreds of my own hard-earned dollars, Merchor…

Courtesy many of the same scene levelers who brought you Twitching Tongues and Nails now comes Disgrace, a quartet that seamlessly marries true blue classic American death metal buzz n’ pummel to premium metallic hardcore for a sound that is worthy of the predictably sick Dan Seagrave cover artwork. This morning we’ve got the exclusive…

Look at those three up there. That’s like 1000 combined years of grizzled. Fronted by Tad Doyle of the legendary TAD, a dude who’s only gotten heavier as he’s gotten older (sonically, that is), alongside scene veterans Peggy Doyle and Dave French, Brothers of the Sonic Cloth are heavier than a really heavy thing. Their…

Black metal and baby bottles? No, we haven’t employed Anne Geddes as our cover photographer, and no, we haven’t lost our minds. It’s just the latest step in the tumultuous, unbelievable journey of Jef Whitehead, the one-man trailblazer behind USBM institution Leviathan. Just four years ago, Whitehead was arrested on multiple criminal charges, his legacy and life…

Nunslaughter has been recording mandatory underground metal since 1987, a time when extreme metal was largely in retreat and teased hair was the norm. The band has been led for close to three decades by the inimitable Don Of The Dead (Donald Crotsley) a walking metal encyclopedia content to release the bulk of his band’s…

** Our February 2015 (HERE) issue features a fantastic expose on the upcoming releases of 2015. Here’s five crucial releases by killer bands that weren’t part of our list. 5. Hate – Crusade:Zero Hate are viewed as underlings to the kingdom Vader built, but over recent years the Warsaw-based trio have come into their own….

We’re a little over a week out from the release of the new Visigoth record, The Revenant King, but we’ve got the exclusive premiere of the epic closer for you today…Enjoy! Check out another album cut over at…NPR.

Happy New Year, you pecking geeks. There’s not much going on at the end of the year, and not much going on in the beginning of the year either. At least we’re out of the doldrums of the reissue cycle, although there have been some that are cool. Hailing from Portland, OR, LORD DYING release…

**Matt Olivo is the founding guitarist of extreme metal trailblazers Repulsion, whose Horrified LP ranks as Decibel’s #1 grindcore album of all time. Because we know that every reader ever plays guitar, we are bringing his print column to the Deciblog. In issue #121 Matt gave his feedback on Dunable custom guitars made by Sacha…

When the Devin Townsend Project played their string of dates with Animals As Leaders a month ago, it was clear the show was not the Hevy Devy indulge-fest that the band’s past headlining shows have been.  Conspicuously absent was the pre-show Ziltoid Radio craziness that have accompanied Townsend’s stage show for a few years.  Townsend worked hard…

R.I.P. Taylor Negron The Resurrection of Andrew Wood Growing up, I was a huge Andrew Wood fan. He was the singer of Mother Love Bone, which, all things considered, is the band that wrote the book on most of what came out of Seattle in the ’90s. Even though he grew up in Seattle, Wood was…

Liv Jagrell is at home in Stockholm when we call her on the Internet phone. Sister Sin’s athletic frontwoman has been promoting the shit out of her band’s latest album, Black Lotus, for weeks now. But she’s agreed to speak exclusively with Decibel about another type of public relations: her upcoming pictorial in Penthouse magazine….

I don’t know much about Calgary’s Arbitrator outside of the fact that they refer to themselves (or at least have been referred to) as “industrial death metal” and have existed in various line-up permutations over the course of four years of existence. They’ve existed as everything from full-on quartet to duo status to one-man on…

Yesterday was a big day for music nerds, especially critics. Even though we’re already two weeks into 2015, end of the year fever never really subsides until the Village Voice’s annual Pazz + Jop poll hits. Ever wanted to know what some of your favorite Decibel scribes enjoyed most during the year? Well, now you…

Let’s clear away any confusion at the outset: Mark SaFranko is not someone’s father who has decided to moonlight in a metal band or one of the few remaining music talent scouts. SaFranko is an American author based in New Jersey who, for more than three decades, has lived a writer’s life and all it…

You know how we at Decibel go all batshit for just about everything Baltimore label A389 releases?  The name Noisem mean anything to you?  Full of Hell?  Ilsa?  Yeah. Last year, we got our lazy asses out for the label’s 10th anniversary bash, including three days and multiple venues of high-quality mash-ups of death metal, doom,…

Chris Dodge and drummer-extraordinaire Dave Witte take on the Great American Beer Fest.

Every once in a while a young metal band will come along with a sound, a look, and an attitude that will just make any fan over the age of 35 beam. Despite boasting a band name that makes you think they’re a Steel Panther knock-off, German quintet Alpha Tiger has steadily become a very…

2014 was a year of major tumult for the music biz. CD and download sales took a beating as streaming continued to skyrocket; at the same time, streaming services took a beating from many quarters of the industry, and not a single one of them has proven profitable. U2 apologized for the biggest album release in history, and…

In the mood for a serious blastbeating? Sarpanitum have some serious black and death metal for your blasphemous enjoyment. Taking aim at the joys of religious warfare, this Birmingham-based trio brings long song titles and brutality to their death metal game. You can enjoy the beatdown below. ***Blessed Be My Brothers hits on February 17…

As Ottawa’s trad metal-tinged punk rock underground-superstars-in-the-making ZEX continue to build an increasingly strong head of fist-pumping, sneering, anthemic steam with the upcoming Magic Bullet re-release of the band’s barnburner debut Fight For Yourself, it is Decibel‘s pleasure to bring you the exclusive premiere of the uncensored “Wanderlust” video. Photo credit here. (I think!) Tour…

Any astute follower of metal in the past five years has likely noticed a huge uptick in the number of bands with a proto-70s sound and occult themes: The Devil’s Blood, Sabbath Assembly, Blood Ceremony and The Oath. A few of these bands have been on Decibel’s cover: In Solitude and Ghost B.C. (twice). While…

5. BaneOriginally from Serbia but now located in Canada, death/black metallers Bane (possible connection to album title Storm of the Light’s Bane, but none to the Massachusetts-based hardcore band of the same name) take only the fastest, brutalist, sickest moments in Dissection’s oeuvre for the The Acausal Fire album. Actually, that’s not true, Bane are…

Rage Against the Machine, Arizona Concert Watch, 2015 New Millennium Homes Our first game of the weekend takes place in the House of Pain of Football (hold the Everlast), Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. New England is the serious favorite to win it all. No one is taking Batlimore seriously this year except the cast of…

“We have unleashed our new video upon humanity,” says Incantation frontman/death metal legend John McEntee. “Brought to you by the tireless efforts of Black Arts Media and filmed at the Vermillion Haunted School House in Ohio. Many thanks for allowing us the use of your establishment. For it’s notable aggression and speed, amidst the albums…

Last month, Devin Townsend and his madcap Project went out on tour with Animals As Leaders and Monuments.  Decibel made sure to catch the show when it came to Baltimore, and we were not disappointed.  Long-lived set favorites like “Bad Devil” and “Regulator” stormed over the crowd, while much of the rest of the evening…

“Mexican-American death/grind bands, like to answer telephones and say hello to Decibel hacks on the other end…” It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Mexico’s Rottenness. Breaking up for a short spell during 2012 didn’t help their cause, but the band is back with a new line-up and album in the wings. Gone are…