Lists

Decibrity Playlist: Inter Arma

March 7, 2013

Last year, Torche was so stoked about the coming of summer that it passed along a “summer fun” mix. To help get ready for the warmer weather this year, we enlisted the assistance of Inter Arma guitarist Trey Dalton to tell us about some albums to spin once “spring has come and it’s time to…

Shiva-Approved Metal Tourism: All Hail Bhayanak Maut!

March 5, 2013

Bombay metal stalwarts Bhayanak Maut — “terrible death” in Hindi — are a groove n’ grind powerhouse. That much is beyond dispute. But listening to the band’s latest EP Metastasis, one nagging question did arise: Say Decibel gets all fired up and flies halfway around the world to see a Bhayanak Maut home country performance…

Decibel’s Top 5 Black Metal Logos

March 4, 2013

5. Thou Art Lord – Thou Art Lord’s first logo was sort of a cross between the Mysticum and Mayhem’s logos. Not sure why they changed it—several times, in fact—to a dumb font or a hand-scrawled atrocity, but the Greek supagroup got it right. Just look at it! It’s Christ’s greatest foe. The symmetry and…

Decibrity Playlist: Helen Money

February 7, 2013

Helen Money, aka Alison Chesley, dropped a new album earlier this week via the inimitable Profound Lore Records. As our Brent Burton described in Issue #101, the cellist’s playing is rather unorthodox as she “stretch[es] and distort[s] the possibilities of amplified cello with a bevy of effects.” To celebrate the release of her third record…

Decibrity Playlist: Misery Index

January 24, 2013

With the throes of winter usually comes a dearth of new releases. So after perusing the innumerable year-end lists, there’s no better time to catch up on all of the records you missed, not to mention your back catalog. If you’re in a band, it’s also a good time to put out something new given…

Decibrity Playlist: Ancient VVisdom

January 17, 2013

The dudes in Ancient VVisdom’s have already put together a pretty impressive resume considering they only got started in late 2009. For starters, the Austinites have put out a split and debut full-length and hit the road with Ghost and Blood Ceremony (and, along with Pallbearer and Royal Thunder, will be supporting Enslaved starting January…

Decibrity Playlist: Holy Grail

January 10, 2013

If you’ve been keeping up with our last two issues (which also happen to be our year-end and 100th), you’ve probably noticed that there’s a new Holy Grail record coming out this month. While you’ll have to wait until January 22nd to see if your excitement about Ride The Void even comes remotely close to…

Tales From the Metalnomicon: Dustin LaValley

January 4, 2013

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a new twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors… Gonzo dark fiction author, screenwriter, martial arts sensei, serious connoisseur of heavy metal and hardcore — there’s a lot thrown into the mix when it comes to the literary force of nature…

Decibrity Playlist: Rotten Sound

January 3, 2013

Not only does Rotten Sound have a new EP coming out later this month, but the Finnish quartet is also celebrating its vicennial. So when bassist Kristian Toivainen suggested putting together a playlist with picks from a certain year, it took us back to a feature we used to have in the magazine. Back in…

Living In The Eighties: Metal Covers The Decade Of Pop

January 2, 2013

Since the New Year is the time of self-reimagination (or big promises that aren’t kept) it’s a good day to look back into the storied skeleton closet. While metal took over the planet in the 1980s via Metallica and Iron Maiden (after Black Sabbath set the stage for a decade) pop ruled the charts. You…

Decibrity Playlist: Ancestors (Part 2)

December 27, 2012

To celebrate the Mayan apocalypse, last week Ancestors shared the first half of its end of the world playlist. Doomsday or not, we automatically scheduled the second half of the Los Angeles quintet’s picks to run this morning to help satiate this guy‘s voracious appetite for the written word. But, in the off-chance we manage…

Decibrity Playlist: Ancestors (Part 1)

December 20, 2012

While New Years Eve has never been one of my favorite holidays, Ancestors’ most recent effort, In Dreams And Time, was one of my top records of 2012. The previous sentence made more sense when the band was putting together a NYE playlist for us. Nevertheless, the Los Angeles quintet has assembled something even better…

Soundtrack to Your Insomnia

December 18, 2012

“I’ve got a problem with bands that come from an area but don’t reflect where they’re from,” While She Sleeps vocalist Lawrence Taylor says toward the end of the press release accompanying This is the Six, the UK band’s latest hypercharged slab of frenetic metalcore. “I know a lot of bands that will sing with…

Decibrity Playlist: Kowloon Walled City (Part 2)

December 13, 2012

In honor of the recent release of Kowloon Walled City’s Container Ships, last week we presented Side A of the band’s tour van mixtape. Chock full of A.M. gold, it was the perfect driving music for vocalist/guitarist Scott Evans and bassist Ian Miller (not to mention, they clearly know their shit about it). Guitarist Jon…

Tales from the Metalnomicon: Children of the Grave

December 7, 2012

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a new twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors. Enjoy! And if you have suggestions for future Metalnomicon columns, feel free to make them known in the comment section… Despite the prophecy issued more than forty years ago by Black Sabbath,…

Decibrity Playlist: Kowloon Walled City (Part 1)

December 6, 2012

Back in October, we provided a glimpse into the making of the new Kowloon Walled City record Container Ships (check out part 1 and part 2). Now, to celebrate both its Tuesday release and the fact that it’s REALLY fucking good, the band was kind enough to send along a tour van mixtape full of…

Inside The Shredder’s Studio #4: Alex Bouks of Incantation

November 28, 2012

Fall has been kind to the mighty Incantation. They released their boss new album Vanquish In Vengeance (read more about the creation of the album in our new issue). And they charted like a Britney Spears single in our top 100 death metal albums of all time. One of the reasons they are shredding so…

STREAMING: Bastard Sapling’s “Cold Winds Howled Across The Desolation”

November 21, 2012

Since the Decibel faithful are about to enter a restful trance of their own thanks to pounds of turkey, pumpkin pie and stuffing (or tofurkey for all our vegan readers) we thought it was the right time to introduce a new track from Bastard Sapling’s Dragged From Our Restless Trance. Streaming below is “Cold Winds…

REGENTS MAY NOT BE METAL, BUT THEY LIKE METAL

November 15, 2012

Regents features current and ex-members of Sleepytime Trio, Maximillian Colby, Frodus, the Exploder, Battery, Combatwoundedveteran, Thursday, United Nations and Decahedron playing the sort of screwy and spazzy post-punk punk rock you’d expect a band featuring current and ex-members of Sleepytime Trio, Maximillian Colby, Frodus, the Exploder, Battery, Combatwoundedveteran, Thursday, United Nations and Decahedron to be…

Decibrity Playlist: Aaron Stainthorp​e (My Dying Bride) (Part 2)

November 15, 2012

To celebrate the release of A Map Of All Our Failures, last week My Dying Bride vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe (that’s him in the middle) went through the first half of My Dying Bride’s discography to tell us about an album that he was listening to while writing/recording each LP. As he told us, “They have…

Full Album Stream: Grand Supreme Blood Court

November 14, 2012

The phrases “Van Drunen” and “side project” will cause more than a little excitement in these parts. The death metal frontman handled vocals on two prestigious entries in Decibel’s Top 100 Death Metal Albums (available here). He also toured with the mighty Bolt Thrower and fronts war-themed badasses Hail Of Bullets. The dude is like…

Laina Dawes’ Soundtrack to Your Cultural Emanicipation

November 13, 2012

The forthcoming What Are You Doing Here: A Black Woman’s Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal is such an exquisitely rendered, inspiring melange of memoir, cultural criticism, extreme music history, and fiery, righteous polemic it only seemed natural to offer up some Deci-space to author Laina Dawes for a list of five albums the spurred…

Decibrity Playlist: Aaron Stainthorp​e (My Dying Bride) (Part 1)

November 8, 2012

We’ve been lucky enough to have the likes of Shane Embury, Greg Mackintosh and Anders Nyström tell us about records that related in some way to each of their bands’ studio albums. This time around, Aaron Stainthorpe (that’s him on the far right) combed through My Dying Bride’s discography (including the quintet’s eleventh and latest,…

Decibrity Playlist: Early Graves

November 1, 2012

Two years after the tragic death of Makh Daniels, Early Graves triumphantly returned with a new record this week (Justin M. Norton put it much more eloquently in his review in our December issue). Instead of putting together a typical playlist to celebrate Red Horse, the quintet decided to go all multimedia with its theme:…

Decibrity Playlist: All That Remains

October 25, 2012

Since All That Remains released its debut a decade ago, the band has been a model of consistency in terms of the album cycle. In fact, it has dropped a new record like clockwork every two years since 2002, meaning no one should be surprised that full-length number six is set to drop on November…

Full Album Stream: Venomous Maximus — “Beg Upon The Light”

October 24, 2012

Venomous Maximus isn’t a cover band that does a cool version of “Witching Hour.” This Houston band likes riffs, penned a song that’s an indirect ode to King Diamond (see below) and has earned comparisons to Pentagram and Electric Wizard. We’ll gladly take that over a Cronos impersonation. For your exclusive streaming pleasure, Venomous Maximus…

A Very Heavy Halloween IV: Orloff’s Vomitorium

October 23, 2012

There are many things we could say about Apparitions Among the Graveyard Skies, the just released horror-worshipping, gore-festooned debut album from superlative down n’ dirty death metallers Orloff, but here is the fun fact that probably best sums it up: The first 100 copies ordered come with a limited edition barf bag. Which is why…

Decibrity Playlist: Bison B.C.

October 18, 2012

In anticipation of next week’s release of his band’s fourth record Lovelessness, Bison B.C. guitarist/vocalist James Farwell penned one of the most introspective and honest playlists we’ve ever run. He also sent over the following introduction, which is fortunate because we could not have put it any better. Listen along to his picks here. “Here…

A Very Heavy Halloween III: Stallone Vs. Dane Cook & the Kings of Leon

October 16, 2012

We’re about two weeks out from the release of American Baby, the driving, effervescent debut from ex-Torche/current MonstrO guitarist Juan Montoya’s instrumental metal outfit Stallone. Burly as their namesake, Limited Fanfare Records describes the EP as “riff oriented, drop-tuned melodies combined with an uplifting expression of aggressive energy” and that seems pretty spot on, though…

Decibrity Playlist: A Life Once Lost

October 11, 2012

A Life Once Lost’s fifth full-length has been a long time coming. Not only has it been five years since our hometown favorites put out Iron Gag, but when we last spoke to Doug Sabolick back in January 2011 (you know, back when there was hope for the Phightins), the band had already been writing…