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Okay, so maybe the (free!) Suffer Mental Decay demo isn’t quite as showy as a mass rock plateau suicide, but, good goddamn, the not-overly-modern-death-metal-with-a-twist of Masada sure is an awesome breath of fresh air in these deathcore-laden days. Featuring ex-members of Immolation and Goreaphobia and fronted by Crucifier’s “Black Lourde of Crucifixion” Cazz Grant, this…

Flipping through the latest issue of the New Yorker this weekend I happened upon something you don’t frequently see in the pages of that august publication: A portrait of a guy in a Trivium T-shirt.

You’re probably familiar with the Grill ‘Em All food truck and Kuma’s Corner, two notorious heavy metal-themed beef huts. But a Decibel writer tipped me to an overlooked den of blazin’ beefitude known as Zippy’s Giant Burgers, and it is arguably the most metal of them all, thanks to the guy above and to the…

German forward-thinking metallers The Ocean give us Part 2 of their recent trouble-filled trek through the U.S. and Canada. What to expect? A pro-filmed video, a few different accents (British, German, Australian), quick shots of front row boobage, the realization that the Job for A Cowboy dudes pump iron like Stallone, the group’s driver disappearing…

The Rev. Aaron Pepelis is a veritable heavy metal institution in the Northeast. His long-running radio show Return to the Pit — transmitted from WUNH in Durham, New Hampshire and streamed here — is about as solid as tru blackened grind industrial death rock radio gets. He is a consummate and tireless photographer whose work,…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wy_mXuEsP0 Brent Hinds has twirled his Mastodong around by starring in a surprisingly well done commercial for Atlanta bar and restaurant Elmyr. We can only assume that Hinds truly enjoys their food and was happy to do it as I doubt a place that sells two kinds of PBR is flush with marketing cash. But…

In an typically astute review of the new In Flames disc Sounds of a Playground Fading penned for the issue of Decibel hitting stands right about now, Adrien Begrand argues — correctly, in my negligible opinion — that despite the Gothenburg quintet’s obvious (and occasionally egregious) missteps, far too much of the band’s post-Clayman output…

Photo: Cee Lo Green, working out his Immortal aspirations. Perhaps our most high-profile Closet Metalhead to date, Cee Lo Green turns 37 today. I had the honor of interviewing him for Decibel #76, and in case you missed it (order it here), here’s an excerpt: When I was a kid, we would go out to…

Our second eulogy for dearly departed Metalgazers Isis includes more reminiscing from the band, more photos (again thanks to Mark Dawursk) and an old school live clip from one of our favorite songs. Let’s get to it: Bryant Clifford Meyer (Electronics, Keyboards, Guitar, Vocals) For some reason my memory has become slightly out of whack…

There’s a whole lot of scary to live up to when one christens a band The Beast of the Apocalypse, but on Henosis these down and dirty Dutch black metallers give the Dark One a run for his money. The Dictionary of Spiritual Terms defines henosis as “the soul’s purification, accomplished primarily through philosophy, culminates…

Photo: Redferns “I want your whiskey mouth all over my blonde south.” YES. Any song that starts out with a reference to a little ra-ra-ooh-la-la has our backing. Lady Gaga’s Born This Way has been leaking faster than Rush Limbaugh’s diaper, and one of the latest tracks to show up is “Heavy Metal Lover.” Typical…

Tell me, kids. What’s with the vocal covers? I can understand bands doing covers of their favorite tunes. Been happening since the dawn of music, in fact. But dudes (and the occasional dudette) hanging out in their bedrooms—with mic in hand and webcam turned on—attempting to best their favorite growler for the world to see,…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dYWof3QZbQ I don’t particularly like Fucked Up but I do respect them. Their move from hardcore punk to anthemic art rock has never seem strained and gimmicks like their twelve-hour show asked more of them than anyone else in attendance. And furthermore on the topic of live shows, they always come through, much to the…

Eligiendo Muerte, online clearinghouse for the Spanish translation of our fearless Editor-in-Chief’s landmark Choosing Death, is now hosting — in conjunction with Relapse Records and Bazillion Points — a stream of the nasty upcoming Haemorrhage full-length Hospital Carnage. Tumor donors, traumageddons, growls, blastbeats, breakdowns, flesh-devouring pandemia, splatter nurses — what are you waiting for?! And…

For aspiring young bands touring the U.S. isn’t a walk in the park. Now, bring those aspiring young bands over from Europe, where from what I can tell things are far more convenient and distances between points shorter, and nightly on-stage antics become not just a job but an ordeal. The Ocean evidently found out…

Hesher is a movie about Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, looking like a young, malnourished Phil Anselmo) who helps prepubescent T.J. endure the abject misery that is his life. Hesher does so by burning houses, walking around in his tighty-whiteys, and basically being a slovenly turd. “Cliff Burton was a big, big inspiration for my character,” Gordon-Levitt…

Photo: Tony Swatton Thor reigned supreme this weekend, earning $65.7 million with his bulbous hammer. No one was more amped than a sector of humanity known as the Norse Hollywood Dining Vikings. These Viking enthusiasts showed up for the movie at a theater in Glendale, California—a hotbed of Norse activity if ever there was one….

Goddamnit! Why didn’t we see this BEFORE Mother’s Day? Forget tulips or perfume or a framed picture of your dumb-ass face. Can you imagine the joy mom would have experienced when she unwrapped Devin Townsend’s spatula? (Er, umm.) And don’t think this is one of those fancy spatulas that’s reserved for holidays and special occasions….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgG-4VSnIPY I’ve never heard of Rasputin Music but I have to say, if you get a chance to stop by this Berkeley store, please fucking do. Trash Talk, who regardless of the quality of their music don’t take no shit from nobody when they step on stage, were brilliantly/foolishly asked to play an in-store. And…

The 28,000 power-walkers at San Antonio’s Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure last week received an unexpectedly muscular end of the trail send off from RockStar Riot, a fledgling band of civic-minded fifteen to seventeen year-olds metalheads who serenaded the crowd with impressively spot-on renditions of classic Judas Priest, Metallica, Saxon and Moxy songs…

Photo: Roderick Trestrail “Holdin On to Black Metal” is the latest song to be released from My Morning Jacket’s upcoming album Circuital. Surprise: It’s not black metal. It sounds like background music to a 70s swingers club. These Kentucky psych-hippies recorded the track in a church. Doubt they set fire to it. “Oh black metal,…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CvNR_TlaaI The legendary Pentagram is back in a big fucking way (if you haven’t noticed) so it’s the perfect time to crank out a dedication. D-beat lovers Hot Graves have actually slowed themselves down to pull off a faithful and killer cover of “Madman” from Pentagram’s Day of Reckoning. And they’ve gone further by releasing…

Here’s some useless hump-day crap: Nicolas Cage has a 20-year-old son named Weston (the chick on the right) who is in a metal band called Eyes of Noctum. Weston got married to the chick on the left. I read about this on a probably not-at-all-reputable site called Hot Momma Gossip. A little googling uncovered the…

Leave Zakk Wylde alone. He’s getting exposure for metal and that’s a good thing. Such was the gist of a surprising number of reader responses to my post last week poking fun at the Black Label Society guitarist for appearing with that metallic theater arts goofball on American Idol. (Alas, these missives remained but a…

“Γοργόνειον III”, the front cover painting commissioned by Relapse Records for Horseback’s double album “The Gorgon Tongue” has quite a bit of history behind it.

The disconnect between classical music (all types) and heavy metal (all types) is probably less to do with musical form (although blues-based heavy metal is obviously divergent) than class. See, people into classical music are largely of a different economic, educational, and social background from dudes who headbang and play air guitar to “Fucked with…

Anyone want to add a circle and line over my man K.K. Downing because he has left Judas Priest before their fake farewell tour. One of the band’s founding members has decided to hang up his flying V after 40 goddamn years, citing internal problems with “elements of the band” and management. I’m not sure…

You ever heard “Piano Metal”? No? Well it fucking sucks.

There are probably more than a few Decibel readers who, like me, have never seen an episode of American Idol. Just never got around to it, and it’s a good thing, too, because it saved us the trouble & heartbreak of boycotting the show when Steven Tyler, like, totally sold out, man and, perhaps tempted…

Photo: Andrew Savulich You’re probably already aware of the Decibel staff’s somewhat unnaturally obsessive love of baseball. On one side, you have Albert and the Phillies; on the other side, you have Andrew and the Mets. When these teams square off, run for cover. And don’t come out until the following day, when the victor…