Live Review

Just around the corner from the Camden Underworld, the BrewDog bar is exhibiting all the signs that tonight’s show is going to be over-subscribed despite Napalm Death’s much-anticipated and completed new album, Utilitarian, in cold storage until the New Year. The Scottish independent brewery’s own titular tribute to the Dead Kennedys’ anti-fascist anthem, the 7.8%…

This show was at Saint Vitus, a heavy metal bar in Brooklyn. The place has a separate room for the stage, which is nice, or rather, brutal. I’d like to go there when there’s no show, because it was packed. I was there to rock, not to brush my cock against a bunch of bearded…

Morbid Angel are playing a shopping mall tonight. It’s OK, though, ‘cos it’s not like they are opening it, or performing exclusively for the switching on of the festive lights. That sorta shit’s demeaning and they’ve already had a tough year of it. There weren’t too many organs of record with their ass in the…

Welcome to University of Leeds. This is Damnation Festival’s seventh year, the fourth since moving to the three-stage venue. It’s no minor triumph to last seven years as an underground metal-fest, packing the punters in when having to compete with larger festivals with their larger budgets, surviving all that industry bullshit at a time when…

A few weeks ago we posted a Live Evil festival preview which was, in all fairness, maybe a little mean-spirited seeing that the vast majority of folks couldn’t cross ocean, continent or geographical border to attend an underground metal festival in London, U.K. Not at such notice, anyways. Live Evil 2011 was the festival’s sophomore…

Motha fuckin’ True Till Def. It’s a free event at Santos Party House, merging two genres that go together like bread and pudding: hardcore and hip-hop. I absolutely fucking loved it when Anthrax did that song with Run DMC. Oh, and did I mention that it’s free? (You have to RSVP, it’s like a wedding.)…

09/23/2011, Terminal 5, NYC Is this exciting, or what? Seeing Queens perform their self-titled was cool, but I never, ever thought I’d get to see Kyuss…or, uh, anything like Kyuss, either. When I found out about the NY date, as Decibel’s self-appointed toke-master general, I felt it was my duty to attend. In addition, I…

The Deciblog took to sober prayer and genuine concern when Cannabis Corpse brought their marijuana death metal party through Europe. The big worry was in the logistics: just how were four weed-obsessed death metal dudes from Richmond, VA going to negotiate over ten border controls, navigate themselves across the continent without some Midnight Express fucking…

Singapore grind trio Wormrot’s sophomore UK tour Evisorax was the sort of faceripper that had the usual confederacy of punk and metal extremists out in force, complete with dogs on strings, and the usual anarcho-patched collective. The Deciblog could only witness first-hand the fireworks-indoors intensity of tour finale in London, but enlisted band manager Azean…

Some of you are familiar with my now-eight-year-old son, Sam via the occasional Study Hall of Fame series here, here and here (the title of which is pretty ironic, because if you asked him what a study hall was, he’d have no clue as Sam is homeschooled). Those of you who follow Canada’s Hellbound.ca may…

Victoria, British Columbia, is on an island, and as a result gets skipped by 9 out of 10 touring bands. Other than, say, Anchorage, Alaska, this is probably the most inconvenient city of any size on the West Coast to get to. It’s the capital of BC, but it’s distinctly removed from the rest of…

Finally. Waking the grunge: a Soundgarden tour. I creamed my flannel pajamas. Fuck Coachella, this was it. A reunion I thought would never happen because Chris hated the idea. Besides saying he put a lid on it, in ’09 he cynically said, “Someone in my position, if I wanted to sell out I’d just get…

Let’s put this in perspective. I can’t recall — ever! — a band of Amon Amarth’s music style and profile doing a full U.S. tour without direct or local support. That includes every legend in the book. Entombed, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Vader, Carcass, Napalm Death, Obituary, etc. Sure, they may’ve done a string of…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsytdmYtcf8 Goddamn i wish I saw this when I was 8. Napalm Death with Lee Dorrian and Bill Steer tear apart a kid’s TV show on the BBC in 1989 and unlike the usual out place extreme band shots… okay, this is still pretty out of place, especially when the words “Def Metal?” pop up…

Perhaps the expiration date has passed since the Decibel-sponsored Darkness Reborn World Tour has been toe tagged for almost a month now, but semi-deep reflection over the events at Philadelphia’s Electric Factory warrant at least a few digital inkwells be spilled in reverence to one of the three bands supporting headliner/arctic Mad Max lookalikes Dimmu…

Arrving at the infamous Trocadero later than expected, party Decibel—all one of us—found Holy Grail amping up their final song of the night. Aggressive, competent and young, but replete with every leather pants-ed cliché known to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Manowar, the Californians may (some day) evolve into a formidable heavy metal machine. For…

Last night Terminal 5 In New York City was the host for the quasi black-metal “Darkness Reborn” tour, featuring Dimmu Borgir, Enslaved, Blood Red Throne and Dawn of Ashes. Sorry Dawn of Ashes and Blood Red Throne—I’m sure you ruled, but also ruling was slurping down the devil’s hooch at a nearby dive bar instead…