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The last time we spoke to black metal pontificator Alexander von Meilenwald he had the following to say about The Ruins of Beverast’s origins: “I didn’t define any concrete goals in the beginning, to be honest. The Ruins Of Beverast were established rather spontaneously when I felt the need to express new musical urges that…

The dudes in Primitive Man spent much of the summer on the road in support of their debut, Scorn. Like any other touring band, the Denver trio–which features drummer Isidro “Spy” Soto, vocalist/guitarist Ethan Lee McCarthy and bassist Jonathan Campos–has a batch of go-to tunes when it comes time to traverse the good ol’ U.S….

So Randy Larsen and Bernie Romanowski from long-running noisecore antiheroes Cable launched a new project a little while back called Empty Flowers to explore 90s-style smart, seething gut-punch post-hardcore. And the mix actually works! Really fucking well! The band’s debut, Six, created some impressive atmospheres and undercurrents, but the sophomore release Five sees Empty Flowers…

If you were to ask Vulture Industries’ main-brain Bjørnar Nilsen where inspiration comes from, he’d probably say this: “We draw inspiration from all over but tend to give each part a good kick in the side to bend it a bit out of shape. If you draw a hexagon and put Tom Waits, Nick Cave,…

There are a lot of hooks on Surgical Steel, but that has always been the case with Carcass; no matter how brutal it gets, it’s always hummable. Has that been deliberate?“Well yeah, I’m glad you think that. Yes some of the music is difficult to the untrained listener but we do wanna have hooks; they…

** Niklas Sundin and I first interviewed back in ’93 after the release of Skydancer. Well, this year Skydancer, Dark Tranquillity’s stunning debut album, turns 20. To honor how time has been kind to this stellar release, Niklas agreed to answer a few nifty questions. More importantly, Dark Tranquillity have acquired the rights to both…

It’s been awhile, so let’s get into it, shall we? GORGUTS are back at it with Colored Sands, and lemme tell ya, it’s REALLY good. All the elements are there: death metal, tech metal, and there are some downright pretty moments. I mean, one can’t really touch some of the older chapters of this legendary…

Given the opportunity to write about craft beer every month in Decibel has been eye-opening.

Decibel invites you to start your weekend off right with this exclusive slab of epic, filthy-yet-strangely-beguiling sludge noise perfection from Virginia’s own Akris. The song, “Row of Lights,” is off the band’s forthcoming full-length debut on Domestic Genocide Records. For further information visit Akris’ official website and/or friend them on Facebook.

Yeah yeah yeah, the J-E-T-S, JETS! JETS! JETS! are the joke of the NFL media world. The silly, lap-banded, foot-fetishizing head coach with his man-boy crush on a crappy, metrosexual Rico Suave-like quarterback headline the comedy. Enter the new, Jay-Z-managed, prima donna quarterback, “fighting” for the starting job, adding a considerable amount to the drama….

So, here we are: another year, another season, a new regime. First of all, I want to say that after 14 years of the Andy Reid era, I am quite excited for a new coach. Don’t get me wrong: I have nothing but the utmost respect for Andy, and I thank him for the five…

OK, maybe not quite, though if you do this long enough chances are you’ll be on both ends of hellish interviews. Thankfully, the only thing really wrong with this particular chin wag with From Hell is that it’s been sitting on the back burner for a while, so it may seem more general and vague…

Bloody Hammers obviously have an awesome name, but that Master of Reality-style logo they have (along with the pentagram and naked chick on the cover) may make you think that they’re yet another of the 70s throwback bands that Rise Above keep putting out. Nope! These guys definitely have some pretty black Sabbath running through…

Romanian black metal trio Persekutor’s Angels of Meth was the best album nobody heard in 2006, an anger brownie with hatred frosting. Unfortunately, a protracted legal dispute between the band and its former label Thousand Year Reich over rights to the masters has cast an official stateside release in doubt, and the only official copy…

Metal has always been a global phenomenon. However, one of the communities we don’t hear too much about outside of some fine work by filmmaker Sam Dunn is India. Decibel wanted to get a closer look at what’s going on in India and how globalization and cultural shifts are shaping metal music there. We had…

There comes a point where progressive is no longer progressive. It’s a step beyond. For Venezuelan guitarist Felix Martin, he’s taken the six-string and transformed it into a 14-string creating what he calls “jazz metal.” Now, if we’re to rewind history a bit, “jazz metal” was already covered—to some degree—by Cynic, Pestilence, and Atheist. But…

by Jason McCash, The Gates of Slumber So begins another campaign for an NFL club full of much history–from the greatest game ever played to housing two of the greatest QBs that ever played the game in Johnny Unitas and Peyton Manning. Many NFL records were and still are held by many players that called…

Gorguts released its long-awaited fifth album today, the band’s first in over 12 years. To celebrate, vocalist/guitarist Luc Lemay decided to take a breather from death metal and reveal a little bit of his softer side, highlighting five songs/pieces of music that show the “beauty and poetry in music.” Once you’re done checking out Luc’s…

Check out all this sonic extremity that German label/distributor Iron Bonehead is trying to drill through your thick skull!  On Friday, we brought you a tasty helping of ugly old school death from Abyssous.  This morning (as some of us return to work from a sun-baked Labor Day weekend) we serve up an entire platter…

by Chris Brock, Early Graves Oh, the Oakland Raiders. What a fucking terrible year they had last year, and this year isn’t looking much better. Unlike their Coliseum-sharing pals, the A’s, they have had no luck in turning a totally shit roster into something golden. Instead, we fans have another painful year to watch under…

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors… Bazillion Points Books boasts such an absurdly badass catalog it is difficult at times to believe the publishing house actually exists outside the fantasies of discerning connoisseurs and devotees of underground rock and metal….

Let’s just cut to the chase, people: Godflesh are back, and we’re bringing you their first new recording in 12 years! Justin Broadrick’s seminal progressive industrial outfit has chosen the Decibel Flexi Series to relaunch. And they do so in a big way with a corrosive, crushing cover of Slaughter’s “F.O.D. (Fuck of Death).” Don’t…

We got an earful of Abyssous recently when we browsed through some recent promos for a bit of quick, juicy entertainment. Admittedly, it was the band name that drew us in… but it was the gristly death metal within that kept our attention pinned.

Given the opportunity to write about craft beer every month in Decibel has been eye-opening. The idea that our “Brewtal Truth” column would have lasted more than four years (and counting) and even spawn a book—The Brewtal Truth Guide to Extreme Beers, out in November—is pretty amazing. Now it’s time to bring a little “Brewtal…

I usually try to keep up with current events and what’s going on in the world, but admittedly, I have very little clue what the hell is going on in Turkey. Well, let me step back a bit; I know what’s going on in Turkey – it’s hard to ignore images of mass demonstrations, military/police…

Matt Harvey is a fan of the San Francisco Giants. He shares the name of the NL East’s pitcher of the future (for the record, I wrote this before his injury and really meant it) who happens to play for a certain NY-based franchise. He also really likes Metallica. Some of us here may hold…

As some of you may have noticed, there has recently been an explosive, blown-up debate about (the lack of) stage diving on this year’s Summer Slaughter tour between us, Summer Slaughter, and the fans. Apart from all the useless “you better book ‘baby corpse deep throat massacre’ next year, this tour is not metal anymore”…

Sometimes a little cleaning can unearth big finds. During my latest attempt at restoring some order to the house of CDs I live in, I came across a stack of old CDR’s that contained the archives of my old radio show, Hellraiser’s Ball, at USC’s student run radio station, KSCR (1560 AM!). One of those…

by Kim Kelly Phil McSorley has no interest in talking about Cobalt, and would appreciate it if people would stop fucking asking him about their recording plans. His frustration is understandable, given that he’s just weeks away from the release of his pet project’s first demo and he’s still being bombarded by questions about his…

We’ll make this intro concise as possible, so as to allow readers to break on through to the other side that much quicker: A) False Prism and Cavern Apothecary — presented by Sadgiqacea and Hivelords, respectively — are two of the best, most intriguing mindfuck metal releases of the year thus far. B) The bands…