Lists
Decibrity Playlist: Intronaut
March 21, 2013 Zach Smith
Not only did Intronaut just release its fourth full-length, Habitual Levitations (Instilling Words With Tones), on Tuesday, but the band also recently wrapped up a tour in support of Meshuggah. Needless to say, the quartet probably spent quite a bit of time driving from show to show. Sacha Dunable was kind enough to pass along…
Top 5 Tech Death Metal Bands You May’ve Overlooked
March 18, 2013 Chris Dick
5. Loudblast – Sublime Dementia 1993 (Semetary) Appearing with three tracks on Century Media’s cool In The Eyes of Death compilation in 1991, Loudblast were virtually unknown outside the four corners of France even though they’d released two full-lengths and a string of demos prior to Sublime Dementia. Loudblast twisted Schuldiner’s brutal/melodic idiosyncrasies (from Human)…
Tales From the Metalnomicon: Joshua Belanger
March 15, 2013 Shawn Macomber
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… Though perhaps currently better known as one of the most innovative and imaginative artists currently plying his trade in the world of heavy metal design, Joshua Andrew Belanger also happens to be an…
Decibrity Playlist: BATILLUS
March 14, 2013 Zach Smith
BATILLUS kicked off a month of shows in support of its latest record, the awesome Concrete Sustain, at the end of February. The trek has seen them scoot across the Midwest, over to the left coast and, most recently, Pitchfork’s Show No Mercy SXSW showcase in Austin, TX (check out the band’s remaining dates below)….
Insider The Shredder’s Studio #5: Kurt Ballou of Converge
March 13, 2013 Justin Norton
The latest inclusion in the Shredder’s Studio was inevitable. Kurt Ballou is no stranger to the Dec-faithful; he played on Hall of Fame and top album of the 00s certified masterpiece Jane Doe; laid down riffs on last year’s best record and helped close out our 100th issue party. Mr. Ballou is writing the kinds…
Altar of Plagues: James Kelly on his top five influences outside of metal
March 11, 2013 Jonathan Horsley
“RICHIE HAWTIN is someone that I got exposed to when I was maybe seventeen or eighteen, at an age when I was most into the metal scene, and something just clicked with me. He had these records that were so trancey but trance in the sense of trance-inducing not trance dance music. You just get…
Decibrity Playlist: Inter Arma
March 7, 2013 Zach Smith
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 Shawn Macomber
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 Chris Dick
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 Zach Smith
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 Zach Smith
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 Zach Smith
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 Zach Smith
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 Shawn Macomber
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 Zach Smith
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 Justin Norton
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 Zach Smith
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 Zach Smith
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 Shawn Macomber
“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 Zach Smith
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 Shawn Macomber
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 Zach Smith
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 Justin Norton
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 Justin Norton
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 Kevin Stewart-Panko
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 Stainthorpe (My Dying Bride) (Part 2)
November 15, 2012 Zach Smith
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 Justin Norton
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 Shawn Macomber
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 Stainthorpe (My Dying Bride) (Part 1)
November 8, 2012 Zach Smith
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 Zach Smith
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:…