Lists

Every other media outlet is posting year-end lists, and so are we. Why? Because 99 percent of those chucklefucks have god-awful and/or banal taste in everything, and approximately zero dB staffers power-jizzed our collective denim diaper over the Kanye West album.

5. Black Sabbath “Paranoid” intro riff Tony Iommi is the fuckin’ man. The way his guitar sounded back in the ’70s was just evil compared to everyone else. Whether it had something to do with the way he layered distorted guitars on the recordings, or whether it was due to his playing style or missing…

By Nate Hall (U.S. Christmas) #5. Dixie Collins – Weedeater It takes a special kind of person to create a sonic mirror, a tone that reflects the individual hitting the strings. When Dixie straps on his cheap Squier P-Bass, slugs back some of Kentucky’s worst and switches on his amps, the ungodly wails that erupt…

#5. The end of the “Morrisound” era. In the late ‘80s Morrisound Studios in Tampa was the place to record, and it provided the first real clear production, in my opinion, of double bass work that was happening in the early days of extreme metal. For the first time you were able to hear things…

By Simon Hawemann (War from a Harlots Mouth) 5. Swarm of the Lotus – “Nightmare Paint” “Nightmare Paint” is such a twisted and shattering song, it reminds me of grating doors or grating metal even. It sounds like an earthquake, pure chaos, like elemental forces – out of control. Things you would expect to happen…

During a conversation with Atheist frontman/guitarist, Kelly Shaefer, we jokingly asked him to come up with 5 of Atheist’s worst songs.

Upstart Connecticut noise merchants Pristina have already received the Cosmo Lee invisible oranges-up in our print edition. Now, the band who unleash a gashing rendition of the title track from Today Is the Day’s 1997 classic Temple of the Morning Star [check that shit out here] regales us with five similarly radtastic extreme covers. Today…

During a conversation with Atheist frontman/guitarist, Kelly Shaefer, we jokingly asked him to come up with 5 of Atheist’s worst songs. Now, normally this is no-go territory for any artist with a high sense of self worth, but Shaefer was a cool dude about it. In fact, he laughed. And then said, “I fucking hate…

By Nate Hall (U.S. Christmas) I can’t say this is a “Top 5” list, because I couldn’t possibly rank Appalachian people on any kind of scale. Some of these are people I have known, others I never met. All of them are distinctly Appalachian. Popcorn Sutton — Maggie Valley, NC. The late great moonshiner Marvin…

By Johan Ericsson (Shadowgarden, Draconian, Doom:VS) 5. Bay Laurel – Where Pain Comes to Die (2000) This is a forgotten gem. I don’t know what the sales were for this album but I guess not many people have heard it. After releasing a couple of albums and EPs this came to be their final release….

By James Delgado (Kill The Client) We never really sounded like any of these bands in the end but the spirit of these specific songs were what we were tuning into back when we started this band up and after digging this little list up and playing it back all these years later… it still…

By Road Chief Chris Coyle (Red Fang) Well, Decibel, you pose a question that can only lead to more questions: Are the cans full or empty? Twelve ounce, tall boys or king kans? Domestic or import? You see, we are no strangers to the beer can in any form and have dedicated the better part…

Danzig: 3 How the Gods KillI think this came out right before I entered high school, but it was a main stay in my CD player throughout the 4 years. I was completely obsessed with Danzig, Samhain and Misfits. I loved it all and listened to this stuff constantly. I think this is probably my…

My family has been in western North Carolina for hundreds of years, and I can’t imagine life without this place. Everyone in U.S. Christmas (USX) lives in the Appalachian region, so don’t hesitate to hit us up if you plan to visit. Here are some spots I recommend.5. The Blue Ridge Parkway This 469-mile road…