Featured

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…

On Tuesday, Japanese post-hardcore legends, Envy will release Invariable Will, Recurring Ebbs and Flows, a 14 LP and double DVD box set to commemorate their 20th anniversary. Here’s a quote from the press release: “Invariable Will, Recurring Ebbs and Flows is a limited-edition super-deluxe box set that collects every song ever recorded by Envy (95…

We here at the Deciblog are proponents of good health. So when we were presented the opportunity to present a playlist with that lofty goal in mind, it was an easy choice (not to mention we’re big fans of Scale the Summit’s instrumental musings). As guitarist Chris Letchford explains, “I spend five days a week…

If you are scanning the Internet chances are you have a set of headphones and 15 minutes to burn. If that’s the case check out this funky little EP The Briefcase from New York City duo Bangladeafy. We’re running out of phrases to describe their music today so if you have any questions just ask…

** Dark Tranquillity have a new album out. It’s called Construct. As one of the many requirements of writing about metal is interviewing bands when they have new albums out. Hence, this feature. Actually, scratch that. I’ve been interviewing Dark Tranquillity for almost 20 years now, since the Skydancer effort, so me and the Gothenburg…

Those who have been following my writings in the pages of the magazine , on here, or on Twitter (@JeffTreppel) will probably have figured out that I’m not the biggest death metal guy. So, for a death metal band to catch my attention, they really have to be something special. Beyond (Germany) fit that criteria….

Axeslasher and Decibel present an exclusive stream of a song off the gore-obsessed thrashers’ upcoming album Anthology of Terror, Vol. 1, due later this year on Antithetic Records. Mixed and mastered at the Filth Chamber in Denver with producer Patrick Bruss (CRYPTICUS, TOMBSTONES), “Woodland Tortuary” is a tongue-in-cheek look at late ’80s sadism, inspired by…

Like his bandmates in Boston death-thrash champs REVOCATION, Dan Gargiulo should have been getting ready for Summer Slaughter 2013. Y’know, there are important duties to be done before hurtling across the country in a van: like filling said vehicle full of diesel, packing a bag, loading his guitar into the van, stockpiling Cheetos and cancelling…

By Jon Leon (White Wizzard) 5. Watchtower’s Control and Resistance (1989) Possibly the most over-the-top falsetto vocals of all time…Mixed with some of the most technically proficient playing I have ever heard. Everyone talks about Voivod, who are great, but I think this album is superior to anything any technical metal band did in the…

Guitarist and vocalist Joe Wood is best known for his time in T.S.O.L., including the classic Change Today? album – a hybrid of punk and blues that I consider one of the best Southern California punk albums in the early-to-mid 80s. The album’s highlight is “Flowers By The Door,” a near-perfect song that is still…

Dan Swanö. The man. The myth. The machine. The dude’s got more bands, projects, one-offs, production credits, and engineering nods than anyone in the so-called ‘biz.’ Well, he’s returned, with buddy and guitarist extraordinaire Ragnar Widerberg in tow, on new outfit Witherscape. Those in the Swanö Swanclub have known about Witherscape for a day or…

Window display at Sonic Boom in Toronto: trying to pelt the glare into submission with invisible oranges. ***As chronicled by Alia O’Brien, singer/flutist/organist for Canada’s finest occult rockers, from their recently completed tour with Kylesa, White Hills, and Lazer/Wulf. Order their phenomenal new LP, The Eldritch Dark, here As we drove away from Calgary, missing…

Yesterday was Canada Day! In order to celebrate that entirely meaningless (to us US-based folk) event, we are pleased to bring you an exclusive full album stream of Toronto-based swamp metal soldiers Pyres’ debut Year of Sleep, courtesy of Granite House Records. Proof positive that you don’t have to be from warm climes to ooze…

We asked Toronto’s premiere purveyors of “true, unadulterated heavy metal” Cauldron to keep tabs on the havoc and devastation left behind in the wake of the band’s epic America’s Lost tour and dudes did not disappoint. (See earlier posts here and here.) We couldn’t resist beginning the third diary entry at Orion Fest before going…

Demon Lung‘s debut LP, The Hundredth Name, is a doom album constructed around a grand concept. Yes, it is a doom LP that incorporates some of the genre fundamentals and takes its cues from Candlemass and Coven’s ceremonial sense of theater, but lyrically it follows a tantalizing narrative wherein (loosely speaking) Satan’s long-lost kid is…

By Joseph Michael (White Wizzard) 5. Savatage’s Edge of Thorns (1993) This is one of my favorite albums to listen to on LSD. Great vocals, guitars, and songs. RIP Criss Oliva. The solo on “Edge of Thorns” is worth the price of the album alone. 4. Marty Friedman’s Dragon’s Kiss (1988) This is the guitar…

The masters of the macabre are back, and finally getting their due. AUTOPSY are dropping the utterly filthy The Headless Ritual. To be honest, they aren’t breaking any new ground here, but this is a pecking cool record. If you’re a fan of these guys, you will not be disappointed. If you’re not a fan,…

Because every day another band records another song. Because 83% of those songs are unlistenable and you can’t be bothered to sift through the dreck. Because metal is about not giving a shit and waking your own personal storm. Because music is universal, expression is boundless, and even indie labels (whatever that means these days)…

Sanktuary originally hail from Whitehorse, the capital city of Canada’s Yukon Territory. Look it up on a map and you’ll see why, for that fact alone, we wanted to track them down for a chinwag. To say that the Yukon is a little out of the way is like saying it probably gets a little…

To continue our celebration of the recent release of Construct, we asked Dark Tranquillity vocalist Mikael Stanne–that’s him in front–to a pick a non-DT record that related in some way to each of his band’s ten full-length records (plus one hand-picked EP). Last week, Mikael’s entries took us from 1992′s A Moonclad Reflection EP up…

In January, we introduced readers to Jason Statts. The response to his story was overwhelming and generated quite the buzz in the world of the extremely extreme. We decided to check in with Jason a half-year later to see how he was doing, and if sharing his story changed anything. He was happy to oblige,…

** Sharon Ehman is a Toronto, Canada-based clothing designer and sole proprietor of Toxic Vision, a unique label creating one-of-a-kind designs. New collections, based off her interest in and love for metal as well as the supernatural, are available every month at the Toxic Vision website. Ehman’s work has been seen on members of Watain,…

The new Locrian record Return to Annihilation is out today and — perhaps predictably — it’s fucking awesome and epic and enthralling and, yeah, maybe a little nutty. Go hear for yourself here, buy it here, and check out the band’s exclusive track-by-track listening guide below. 1. Eternal Return We wanted to start out the…

New week; new grind, folks. . . And this one’s a doozy, all the way from Switzerland and four years in the making. Courtesy of the good people at Relapse, we’ve got an exclusive premiere stream of Flies Will Starve from Mumakil. It is kind of ironic for a band who made their name with…

Orphaned Land doesn’t have it easy. As the ambassadors of metal in the Levant and its nearest neighbors, the Israel-based outfit are trying to bridge an incredible cultural, linguistic, religious, and think gap. Through five studio albums, the most recent of which is All is One, they’ve tried to represent both sides of the struggle…

 Because every day another band records another song. Because 83% of those songs are unlistenable and you can’t be bothered to sift through the dreck. Because metal is about not giving a shit and waking your own personal storm. Because music is universal, expression is boundless, and even indie labels (whatever that means these days)…

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors… Dean Swinford is very likely the first and almost certainly the last author in the history of Western literature to pen an epigraph comprised of equal parts Shakespeare (“Is not lead a metal…

I first experienced Fargo, ND’s Sleeping in Gethsmane while on tour with KEN Mode. The scene was a show in the band’s hometown and I remember expressing my enjoyment of their set to guitarist Brandon LaPlante, describing them as “one of the few instrumental math rock bands out there with some balls.” Brandon must have…

If you’ve followed our print mag over the years, you’ll know that we have quite an affinity for Dark Tranquillity, a love affair that extends from old (The Gallery was inducted into our HOF in 2010) and new (Chris Dick gave newest album, Construct, a glowing review…not to mention you may want to check out…

** Mortuary Drape are Italy’s oldest black metal export. But don’t rely on our words for the truth. Many a Norwegian—you know, the guys who made black metal a household name—genuflected at the altar of the Alessandria-based outfit. Just ask Fenriz next time you see him. He’ll tell you the demos were on par with…