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Harrowing, multi-dimensional enlightenment is a fickle beast.  You expect it in extreme locales under strikingly improbable circumstances, perhaps while ingesting mind-altering substances… not so much in a well-lit library crowded with suits, police officers, and raggedy internet-moochers.  Yet here I am getting a hit of pure dark French terror-bliss, and my mind can’t manage to…

Welcome to The Lazarus Pit, a biweekly look at should-be classic metal records that don’t get nearly enough love; stuff that’s essential listening that you’ve probably never heard of; stuff that we’re too lazy to track down the band members to do a Hall Of Fame for.  This week, Girlschool gets sent to the principal’s…

Out of New Mexico’s oft-speculated desert sky flies the darkly evocative Night Terrain. The band members describe their particular style of racket as “equal parts space rock, doom metal, and stoner rock… riffs go from slow, sludgy and droning to uplifting, manic…” On July 24th, Night Terrain self-released their debut album, American Dream, which manages…

Alright, doodz…get your flat-brimmed ball caps out and your buttoned-down plaid shirts to the ready

We’re all getting old. The bands we grew up idolizing are slowing down, retired or making geriatric mockeries of themselves. And sometimes we unfairly and harshly lash out at the newest crop of musicians for not being as heavy or “tough” as we were. I was one of those young, doe-eyed metal kids once, who…

** The original Decibel interview appeared in issue #58 (HERE), but since the Swedes are slower than Candlemass when issuing albums, we felt it was kinda cool to necro-post the full Unanimated interview. Also, Unanimated claims to be working on a new album without drummer Peter Stjärnvind, who left his stool post in February 2012,…

Of all the “traditional metal” albums that have come out in the past year, one that’s snuck up on a lot of us here at Decibel is Residual Alcatraz, the debut by Greensboro, North Carolina’s Dogbane. Not only did the album get a positive review recently, but also we were honored to profile the band…

The tribal beats, the crunching metal guitar and the half rap/half sung vocals of Chuck Mosley coalesced into something altogether original. You can unfortunately perhaps heap some blame for nu metal on these dudes, but what they created at the time was in fact revolutionary. It was like Killing Joke, Metallica and the Red Hot Chili Peppers swapped members for a jam session and came up with a new genre.

These should be top-of-the-world days for Vilipend bassist Mike Crossley. The two early streams off the Toronto band’s upcoming Inamorata 12-inch — “Last Stand of the Hopeless Romantic” and “Great White Nothing” — have earned an enthusiastic from fans of chaotic noisecore aggression and a sure-to-be-killer tour with Meek is Murder is imminent. Alas, some…

English N.W.O.B.H.M./doom elders Pagan Altar will release remastered EP The Time Lord through Shadow Kingdom Records on 11 September 2012. Having previously only available limited vinyl runs, The Time Lord has hitherto harder to find than a taxi on New Year’s Eve, a pint of unicorn milk, etc… This is the first time it has…

Denial Of God formed in Denmark in 1991. Right in the middle of the Golden Age of Swedish death metal and the nascent stages—Abruptum had just started to kick coffins, for example—what would be come the a worldwide black metal scene. Though few bands had full-lengths out—save for Bathory (now in the Viking phase), Root,…

What’s up? There’s definitely some stuff to crow about here, and I’m going to tell you all about it.

I’m pretty sure the guys in Black Shape of Nexus are fucking with me. I mean, I’ve heard heavy music borne out of positive catharsis and even righteous abandon (Devin Townsend, Cynic, et al come to mind immediately), but B.SON sound like they’re coming from a totally different place – specifically boiling out of a…

I discovered Richmond’s The Catalyst the old-fashioned way: the dude at their former record company, Perpetual Motion Machine, sent me a vinyl copy of their first EP, Marianas Trench. Then, that same person sent me a CD copy of the expanded version of said record, Marianas Trench+9. At least that was the old-fashioned way for…

Two weeks ago, we ran the first part of our interview with Shelsmusic’s Mehdi Safa in which we discussed, among other things, how he finds bands and his label’s history with vinyl (you can read that here). In the concluding half of our interview, find out about Shelsmusic Studios, Safa’s views on streaming services like…

Welcome to the opening installment of Inside The Shredder’s Studio, where we talk to accomplished players and guitar nerds about the riffs that make them warm and fuzzy. It would be easy to call this another “Women In Metal” bonus feature but I’m not going to do that. You see, chances are Elizabeth Schall can…

For the past 16 years, German “power” thrashers Perzonal War have wowed thrashers and heshers in their native land. They were discovered by Rock Hard magazine in what is presumed to be a Battle of the Bands/OK Corral-type competition that pitted the hard-hitting Perzonal War against sad kids in Burzum shirts and female-fronted acts with…

Don’t say that we never tried to give you anything. We’re not saying that we are definitely going to give each and everyone of you reading this something. But if you play your cards right [see footnote 1] you may at least have a chance for us [see footnote 2] to give you something. Mighty…

Lord, do we have a bizarrely amazing contest for you all this morning! To celebrate their upcoming Steve Albini-produced 10-inch release on Anthropic Records, Philadelphia’s own self-described “down tuned psychedelic outer space beard metal” outfit Ominous Black has agreed not only to allow Decibel to stream one of these monsters of epic eclecticism, but is…

Twelve albums in on a 22-year-old career and Swedish black metallers Marduk can still be relied upon 100 per cent to stick to the program and deliver a typically iconoclastic tour de force, touching upon all the genre essentials, anti-hymns to send toes curling in the Vatican and throughout Christendom. Serpent Sermon is pound for…

This piece is a long lost companion section to Decibel #92 cover story Paradise Lost. It explores and debunks the myth of the Peaceville Three—Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema—connecting and riffing off one another in the early to mid-’90s. Think of it as an updated version of fellow Decibel contributor Greg Moffitt’s UK…

Welcome to The Lazarus Pit, a biweekly look at should-be classic metal records that don’t get nearly enough love; stuff that’s essential listening that you’ve probably never heard of; stuff that we’re too lazy to track down the band members to do a Hall Of Fame for.  This week, we go skinny dipping in the…

It’s nice to have friends introduce us to new music, but in this age of ever flowing information and ubiquitous quick links, we often rely on bands’ personnel connections to lead us to our next aural awakening. Dude in our favorite death metal band also plays on this grind record or in that prog collective,…

Obviously, War On Music’s Charley Justice works a lot faster than I do. When his original retail location at 38-44 Albert Street in downtown Winnipeg went up in flames back on April 19th, he ramped up his usual whirlwind of internalised kinetic energy and went to work at opening another location as quickly as possible….

The past week or so has brought lots of Caspian news, which we were thrilled about given that aside from some shows here and there, it’s been a while since we’d heard from the instrumental post-rockers. According to their Facebook page, the Massholes spent much of April through June not playing, but rebounded nicely by…

If this sounds like the rambling of an old fart, so be it: kids have it too easy these days when it comes to underground music. If you have a laptop and spare time you have unfettered access to pretty much every rare treasure recorded during the past four decades of metal and punk. That…

Silje interviewed as part of our most excellent Women in Metal issue [dB #94]. How will Disclosure differ from The West Pole? Silje Wergeland: it’s fresher, braver, more confident and honest, deeper, newer. Now that the lineup’s had a few years to synch what’s it’s like working together? Silje Wergeland: It’s great and inspiring! We…

Melvins Lite w/Retox, Club 9One9, Victoria, BC, July 16Who can really keep up with just exactly what the Melvins are up to at any given moment? There are new releases like clockwork. They have always been a prolific band and we suspect they always will be. If nothing else, they’ll have a discography that stretches…

On 21 September, Scotland’s most enthusiastical audio bloodletters Black Sun will reimagine Shakespeare’s most brutal play as a theatrical work of avant-garde metal. The Glaswegian industrial/doom trio, operating under their extra-war-and-extra-percussion Black Sun Drums Korps handle, will take the Bard’s text, cut it up and adapt it to their own aesthetic. Given how carnal, martial…

What the squawk is up? Happy Jason Voorhees Day.