Interviews

Interview: Pick Your Side

May 10, 2012

Pick Your Side is a new hardcore band based out of Hamilton, Ontario (and Buffalo, New York) which features ex-and-present members of Haymaker, Fuck the Facts, Psyopus amongst others. They’ve just released their full-length debut, Let Me Show You How Democracy Works courtesy of A389 Records and played a hometown show last weekend and as…

STREAMING: Kill Devil Hill “Revenge”

May 7, 2012

What do Vinny Appice, Rex Brown, Mark Zavon, and Jason ‘Dewey’ Bragg have in common? Initial thinking is they all own homes in coastal North Carolina. Or, that they’re really big fans of old English slang for sugarcane-based swill. But really the four heavy metallers have hard rocking as a share point. Vinny needs no…

INTERVIEW: Watain check in from the Decibel Tour

May 4, 2012

Watain’s arrival in the US might be bad news to priggish guardians of Christian morality but it’s good news for butchers who have ordinarily found animal’s blood harder to shift than the flesh. Watain require a lot of blood, and it doesn’t have to be fresh. It’s better if it isn’t. We can only presume…

Decibrity Playlist: Horseback

May 3, 2012

In case you haven’t noticed, a third of 2012 has somehow already come and gone. Not only has this year already seen a bunch of great records hit shelves, but there are plenty more on the horizon. And what better way to kick off the remaining 66.7% of 2k12 than with Tuesday’s release of the…

Fernando Ribeiro (Moonspell) interviewed

May 2, 2012

What’s the meaning behind Alpha Noir and Omega White? Other than beginning/end and black/white or evil/good.Fernando Ribeiro: If we chose to ignore the detail who runs mankind and the world since the dawn of knowledge and conscience, birth and death, solar/lunar, dare to know/ignorance is bliss, the best thing I have to offer is that…

Interview: Natur on cryptids, totems and debut album “Head of Death”

April 30, 2012

Partying, camping by the beach, hiking, fishing, smoking weed in graveyards, jamming King Diamond and Manilla Road: Natur had the sort of gnarly Rhode Island upbringing that all us city-bred shmucks can only envy. But it’s not only a healthy way to spend your adolescence, as Natur’s sticksman and designated spokesman, Tooth, can attest to,…

Interview: Joey Molinaro

April 26, 2012

If you’re reading this and into grindcore, you’re probably already well aware that Discordance Axis’ The Inalienable Dreamless is viewed by grind heads in the same way Master of Puppets get looked at by thrashers. Both are genre-defining albums that no die hard fan of the respective sound is nothing but 100% behind. Both Master…

Decibrity Playlist: Greg Mackintosh (Paradise Lost), Part 2

April 26, 2012

To celebrate Tuesday’s release of Tragic Idol, we asked Paradise Lost guitarist Greg Mackintosh to a pick a non-PL record that related in some way to each of his band’s thirteen full-length records that he’s played on over nearly a quarter century (i.e. all of them). Last week, Greg’s entries took us from 1990′s Lost…

Come here and watch “How The Internet Changed Heavy Metal”

April 25, 2012

How has the internet changed metal? That’s like writing a letter that opens with “How has paper changed letter writing?” But to put a finer point on it, Metal Injection has created a just long enough mini-doc on the jaw-dropping paradigm shift in how we headbang now thanks to some nerds years ago who’d probably…

Talkin’ Metallica’s Early Years With Author Neil Daniels

April 24, 2012

All of a sudden thrash’s heyday—it’s nascence—has inspired a bunch of books. Bazillion Points of Light’s Murder in the Front Row provided a photographic document of the California scene that started in L.A. with Metallica and Slayer and then blossomed into something amazing in the Bay Area shortly thereafter. Now UK author Neil Daniels offers…

Interview: Witchsorrow on forthcoming album, God Curse Us

April 20, 2012

Witchsorrow’s sophomore album will be ripe for picking come the end of May. This is exciting news for doom heads. But what’s that you say, the timing could be better? The British trio’s Sabbath/Vitus morbido-doom doesn’t really make for a summer record, right? Those who think that crestfallen pessimism and slo-mo riff ‘n’ dirge was…

Decibrity Playlist: Greg Mackintosh (Paradise Lost)

April 19, 2012

British legends Paradise Lost will release their thirteenth album on Tuesday, the latest entry in a discography that is quickly approaching a quarter-century worth of releases. To celebrate this achievement, we asked guitarist Greg Mackintosh to a pick a non-PL record that related in some way to each of the thirteen full-length PL records that…

Interview: Mares of Thrace, Part II

April 18, 2012

Last week, I interviewed one half of Calgary’s Mares of Thrace – the singing/guitar playing half, Therese Lanz – about a bunch of stuff that didn’t really have anything to do with the band or their upcoming release (next week!) on Sonic Unyon Metal, The Pilgrimage. This week, I offer this chat with drummer Stefani…

Confessions: Orange Goblin on the beer and on the road

April 16, 2012

Orange Goblin’s appetite for ale is the stuff of legend. When the Deciblog caught up with them prior to the long-awaited release of Eulogy for the Damned, frontman Ben Ward, bassist Martyn Millard, drummer Christ Turner and guitarist Joe Hoare were piecing together the making of an album that was recorded over nine weekend sessions….

INTERVIEW: Terrorizer’s Anthony “Wolf” Rezhawk on the real zombie apocalypse

April 13, 2012

Speaking to Terrorizer frontman Anthony “Wolf” Rezhawk just before comeback LP Hordes of Zombies dropped, there was a lot that needed thrashing out. Firstly, there was the prospect of the Californian grind crew getting back together again after founding member Jesse Pintado’s death in 2006. Also, drummer Pete “Commando” Sandoval’s well-publicized back trouble, which has…

Interview: Mares of Thrace, Part I

April 12, 2012

If you root around the internet for about three-and-a-half seconds, you can find all sorts of info on Calgary’s doom-y, sludge-y, math-y metallic duo, Mares of Thrace. Most of that will pertain to the band being comprised of two women – drummer Stefani MacKichan and guitarist/vocalist Thérèse Lanz – and all that clappity-clap about hot(test)…

Decibrity Playlist: Torche

April 12, 2012

The uncharacteristically warm winter that we just witnessed on the East Coast may have masked it, but summer is only weeks away from another triumphant return. And accompanying that inevitable reappearance, of course, will be staples like baseball, grilling and the beach. While the upcoming Torche album could serve as a perfect complement to any…

Scott Kelly launches blog, discusses his solo tour and the new Neurosis album

April 11, 2012

It’s possible Scott Kelly doesn’t sleep. Between his solo work, projects like Shrinebuilder and the untouchable legacy of Neurosis, you could rest a battleship on his laurels. But the man seems to never tire, with something new always around the bend. And to keep his fans in the loop with tours, releases and whatever else…

Bob Bagchus (Asphyx) Interviewed

April 11, 2012

What is the Deathhammer? Bob Bagchus: Deathhammer represents the book of death metal. Our view on real death metal. It’s like the rules of what real death metal was supposed to be. Death metal was supposed to be hard, raw, dirty, creepy, dark and brutal to the bone. Music to be scared of. Just listen…

Interview: Anthrax’s Scott Ian on forthcoming live DVD, touring, and comic book movies

April 6, 2012

Just rocking up at ANTHRAX‘s recent London show to talk about comic book movies and assorted off-topic horseshit, we didn’t expect to have a video camera following us downstairs, backstage, our every move as we squeezed our wheasing, bloated selves onto a sofa to catch 20 minutes with the band’s commanding officer, Scott Ian. But…

Brick By Brick: Travis Campbell Commits Heavy Metal Musical Murder

April 5, 2012

The eponymous antihero of the Troma Entertainment joint Mr. Bricks: A Heavy Metal Murder Musical awakens from a night of hot carnal action to find his comely young sweetheart missing and a bullet lodged in his forehead. His reaction is a bit unorthodox: He breaks into song…and then starts cracking skulls with his kiln-fired namesake,…

Jeff Speed (writer/director) interviewed

April 4, 2012

** Writer, director and videographer Jeff Speed discusses the finer aspects of Municipal Waste’s “Fatal Feast” video and his affinity for ’80s sci-horror. How did you find the location? It’s pretty unique to film a metal video on the set of an old television series, especially one as cult as Firefly. Jeff Speed: I’ve actually…

STREAMING: Trevor de Brauw “Don’t Be An Asshole”

April 3, 2012

Trevor de Brauw is a busy man. Besides his gig as a member of the mighty Pelican, the guitarist is also a publicist, prolific tweeter (@trevordebrauw) and party to several side projects (Chord, Let’s Pet, Bee Control). And, lest we forget to mention, he’s also got the “solo artist” thing going, as evidenced by the…

Marc Okubo (Veil of Maya) interviewed

April 2, 2012

How would you separate [id] from Eclipse as a musical statement? Cut from the same cloth or something else entirely?Marc Okubo: I feel that Eclipse is our strongest release to date. We have matured with our songwriting and our performing. Periphery’s Misha Mansoor helped write and produce the album and I couldn’t be more excited…

Catching Up With: ROTTENNESS

March 29, 2012

Rot of any description isn’t the sort of thing that comes to mind when you think of Cancun. But even dudes living life by the beach, surrounded by fluorescent coloured drinks, bronzed locals and tourist eye candy aren’t immune from becoming obsessed with death metal and grindcore, dedicating one’s life to the noise and kicking…

Decibrity Playlist: “Best of” Meshuggah

March 29, 2012

Sure, Meshuggah releasing its seventh full-length on Tuesday was an event in and of itself. But what has gotten somewhat lost amidst the furor is that, for the quintet, this year marks a quarter century of polyrhythms, polymeters and, of course, polytours. To celebrate both achievements, we enlisted the help of some of the many…

Mike IX Williams — Live from the Corner of Devastation Street!

March 27, 2012

As above, so below. Through his work with EyeHateGod, Outlaw Order, Arson Anthem, and The Guilt of… Decibel readers have long known Mike IX Williams as one of extreme music’s most distinctive, subversive and iconoclastic voices. Less attention has been paid, however, to Williams’ similarly idiosyncratic and visionary literary output, including his excellent collection of…

GONE FISHING: Enslaved’s most extremely extreme sportfish

March 26, 2012

When ENSLAVED‘s Grutle Kjellsson and Cato Bekkevold go fishing they don’t fuck around. It’s really not like going down the pond chasing blue gills or Tommy cats; in Norway, even the trout are built super-hench. You might have caught some footage of them catching alligator gar in Texas a few years ago, but you’ll definitely…

Decibrity Playlist: Astra

March 22, 2012

It’s only fitting that on the eve of Metal Blade—the home of metal legends like Cannibal Corpse, King Diamond and Gwar—stepping out of its comfort zone to release the new Astra record, we’ll now go consecutive weeks mentioning Mahavishnu Orchestra. You see, to celebrate the upcoming release of the San Diego quintet’s sophomore effort (which…

Burton C. Bell on the Storyline to Fear Factory’s “The Industrialist”

March 21, 2012

** Fear Factory’s The Industrialist is out June 5, 2012 on Candlelight Records. We spoke to frontman Burton C. Bell about the record’s storyline. “I am a being… My existence has value… My purpose right now is to relate my witness, without any bitterness or partiality, the motives of my present reality.” We can only…