Lists

You can read the story behind the #1 entry in Decibel’s Top 100 Metal Tours of All Time Special Issue. For the other 99 tours, you’ll need copy of this limited edition Special Issue. 

Make amends for missing records with the Decibel Meter!

The paradigm-smashing creative churn in hardcore as the eighties gave way to the nineties was an amazing thing to behold. And few label rosters represented that wondrous, multidimensional, beauty and the beast evolution-through-revolution moment than Nemesis Records — a legendary 1988-1993 run which, along with Nemesis founder Big Frank Harrison, at long last receives a fitting tribute via Reaper Records founder Patrick Kitzel’s scrappy, enlightening, no-holds-barred, lovingly assembled The History of Nemesis Records, featuring release-by-release commentary from Harrison as well as reminiscences courtesy such scene luminaries as Mike Hartsfield (Outspoken), Issac Golub (A Chorus Of Disapproval), Andrew Kline (Strife), Ron Martinez (Final Conflict), Jon Bunch (Sense Field), Dave Franklin (Vision), and others.

Bandcamp is donating 100% of their proceeds today to the ACLU in the continued fight for human rights around the world. Here are 5 releases to consider purchasing today. 

Over the course of metal’s storied history there are examples of long careers (Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Cannibal Corpse, Napalm Death, etc.), but there’s also the opposite. Bands, most promising, genre-leaders/benders, who issued a lone album or EP and then vanished for one reason or another. At Decibel, we’re more than pleased to praise the long-comings of bands whose careers have lasted a decade or more, but there’s an important slice of career-cutting bands that we’d like to highlight.

2016: gone. Best albums of 2016: available here.

Celebrate the death of 2016 with Philly-based label/distro Horror Pain Gore Death Productions.

Because New Year countdowns are all the rage and never get boring, count down the songs on Plague Soundscapes with us.  Or against us.

One writer picks five favorite Decibel web articles of 2016.

After the dust settled and forty records were assigned a place on Decibel’s vaunted list, five remained that probably could have swapped places with anything else on the list without causing any greater/lesser irritation than lists like this already stir up.  Why should they get left out?  Here are the five records that tied for #41 on our Top 40 Albums of 2016.

Ulcerate, Whores, Gatecreeper, Full of Hell/Nails, Gendo Ikari and everything else Waldo pecked on in 2016. 

When you need a break after hearing “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” or “Jingle Bell Rock” ten thousand agonizing times.

Christmas is in four days, but you have nothing to worry about thanks to these awesome gifts that don’t require any shipping. Happy holidays!

Neill Jameson sounds off on the holiday season and gives you a playlist to impress your internet friends with. 

November was stacked with top-tier releases from genre-defining bands. If you missed any, now is the time to remedy that, and f.y.e. has got them all bundled together in one place for you.

Tony Reed of Mos Generator counts down his favorite hard rock/heavy metal albums.

We’re sorry. We’re not trying to ruin the fun by posting this. But someone else already did. You probably shouldn’t click here. Really, you should just wait for the issue to arrive in the mail. For Christ’s sake, have you no willpower? OK, fine. 

A nice crash-course in the classics.

Swedish melodic death metallers Dark Tranquillity are well known around these parts. The group’s discography is well documented in interview, review, and Hall of Fame form. Now that the Swedes have a new album out, the wonderfully crafted Atoma, it’s time we do our due diligence to see what’s brewing.

Over the last several years Life of Agony bassist/songwriter Alan Robert has built a fascinating second career as a author/illustrator in the world of dark, cutting-edge graphic novels such as Wire Hangers (2010), Crawl to Me (2011), and Killogy (2012). This month the multitalented provocateur turns his attention to subverting and desecrating the adult coloring book craze with the delectably demented The Beauty of Horror: A GOREgeous Coloring Book — a “blood-soaked alternative,” in the words of its accompanying press release, that will take unsuspecting colored-pencil wielders “on a twisted journey through bizarre carnivals, the zombie apocalypse, serial killer lairs, and haunted burial grounds.”

Be sure to check these sets out when Southwest Terror Fest goes down next weekend.

Chris McInroy brought a little shred, gurgle, n’ grind to this year’s Fantastic Fest with his relentlessly awesome, gore-drenched love letter to the decimating power of riffage, Death Metal. The short film is now tearing its way through a huge number of subsequent festivals and considering both its Deci-worthy subject matter overlap and the season, we thought we’d reach out to the director to see if he’d be down to summon up a Death Metal playlist.

Saxon have enjoyed a prolific career, with a multitude of live albums. Inspired by their upcoming vinyl box set, The Vinyl Hoard, Season of Mist’s Greg Karlowitsch ranks Saxon’s already released live albums from worst to best.

The legendary Integrity is currently recording a full-length for Relapse — news that would be cause for celebration/preparation under any circumstances, but with word coming down that ex-Pulling Teeth guitarist/A389 Recordings founder/superior nasty riff generator Domenic Romeo is leading the six-string slaughter this time out feels more like some straight up Book of Revelation seal-breaking shit.

Justin Pearson (The Locust, Retox) is no stranger to the road. Dude has been staring at blacktop and lane dividers in the name of playing dive bars and assorted shit holes around the world for ‘round about 20 years

As Cleveland brutalizers/trailblazers Ringworm returns with yet another fiery-as-fuck, slab of bludgeoning occult-infused metallic hardcore entitled Snake Church, it seemed as appropriate a time as any to check in with vocalist and hardcore horror memorabilia collector Human Furnace about his favorite dark films to watch during the offstage lulls on tour. 

Krieg‘s Neill Jameson on the best record stores in Philadelphia, Richmond, Providence and Chicago.

Far more prevalent now than ever before. Decibel flips through the musty pages of history to highlight the Top 5 Norwegian Death Metal Albums Of All Time.

To celebrate the Decibel Books release of Black Metal: The Cult Never Dies Vol. 1, we ranked Satyricon‘s five best songs. 

From England to Florida, from Tokyo to Oslo, from Australia to San Francisco, postal workers were the bandwidth by which death metal, black metal, doom metal, and every other underground form of metal communicated. Open a letter and out poured legion! Here’s a tribute to Decibel‘s fave old-school fliers.