News
We Exhumed an Unreleased Pentagram Track From 1971
May 1, 2015 Andrew Bonazelli
Doom icons Pentagram are approaching their 45th year (brief hiatuses and name changes notwithstanding).
Stream New Album By Sisters Of…
May 1, 2015 Daniel Lake
Dark, heavy and full of heart, Missouri’s Sisters Of… set their sights on the May 12 release of their first full-length record, The Serpent, The Angel, The Adversary. Their blend of bestial rage and contemplative yearning might just tear you open and fill you up. Come inside and find out.
Hall of Fame Countdown: Slayer’s Reign in Blood
April 30, 2015 Adrien Begrand
There are not many perfect albums in heavy metal history, but Slayer’s Reign in Blood is one of them. Personally, in this writer’s opinion, when it comes to the greatest metal album of all time, it’s a toss-up between Reign in Blood, Master of Puppets, Ride the Lightning, and Paranoid. We’re dealing with an untouchable album here. Well, near untouchable, as Decibel’s Andrew Bonazelli had the brilliant idea for a new way for us to argue about our favorite metal records: why not rank the songs on each Decibel Hall of Fame inductee? Sure, why not?
Decibrity Playlist: Tribulation
April 30, 2015 Zach Smith
We’ve spilled plenty of ink about the new Tribulation record such that any further gushing about The Children of the Night here probably wouldn’t add anything new to the discourse. Chris Dick talked to the band for a feature in this month’s issue (more of which you can read about here) and the quartet scored the lead review and best new noise in our preceding tome. If you’ve perused either piece, however, or had the pleasure to listen to the group’s excellent third full-length, you might be interested in hearing about ten albums that helped form the entity known as Tribulation.
Help Jonathan Dick’s Daughter
April 29, 2015 Justin Norton
Roughly two years go, I received a Facebook friend request from someone named Jonathan Dick in Birmingham, Alabama. I was late to join social media so the idea of befriending someone I didn’t know stuck me as curious. Jonathan was different: I found his profile picture – a snapshot of an intimate tea party with his daughter — utterly endearing.
Philly: Come See Mastodon/Withered Cover Artist Paul Romano This Friday
April 29, 2015 Andrew Bonazelli
April showers bring May, uh, flaming horses and capsizing Moby-Dicks.
Defensible Power Metal: Magic Kingdom
April 29, 2015 Adrien Begrand
As I once wrote in an old issue of Decibel, give one positive review of a Fairyland album, and you’re branded for life.
Stream Noisem’s New Album!
April 28, 2015 Daniel Lake
New Noisem. Now. What more do you need to know? NEW NOISEM NOW!
Hall of Fame Countdown: Slayer’s Reign in Blood
April 28, 2015 Adrien Begrand
There are not many perfect albums in heavy metal history, but Slayer’s Reign in Blood is one of them. In this writer’s opinion, when it comes to the greatest metal album of all time, it’s a toss-up between Reign in Blood, Master of Puppets, Ride the Lightning, and Paranoid. We’re dealing with an untouchable album here. Well, near untouchable, as Decibel’s Andrew Bonazelli had the brilliant/insane idea for a new way for us to argue about our favorite metal records: why not rank the songs on each Decibel Hall of Fame inductee? Sure, why not?
Fire On the Turntable: New Video From The Armed!
April 28, 2015 Shawn Macomber
Good. Goddamn.
Detroit noise punkers The Armed completely fucking kill it on the first single from the upcoming Kurt Ballou-helmed Untitled LP. (June 23, No Rest Until Ruin) Check out the fire festooned video for “Forever Scum” after the jump and then go pick up a bunch of free shit over at Bandcamp.
Black Rainbows: Under the Influence
April 27, 2015 Matt Solis
In this month’s issue, we talked to Black Rainbows’ guitarist/vocalist Gabriele Fiori about the Italian band’s new album, Hawkdope—a gloriously psychedelic romp that pays homage to legends of the riff like Black Sabbath, Rainbow, Hawkwind and Monster Magnet. With that in mind, we asked our man to single out the best song from each of the aforementioned bands…no easy task considering their extensive, decades-spanning catalogs.
STREAMING: Scorched “Caverns of Catharsis”
April 27, 2015 Chris Dick
Delaware is known as the First State, the Diamond State, or the Blue Hen State. Not sure what any of those things mean–except for First State–in the grand context of things, but it should now be known as the Death Metal State. And upstart death metallers Scorched are leading the charge.
For Those About to Squawk: Waldo’s Pecks of the Week
April 24, 2015 Jesse Chase
OK, so, like, there’s some stuff coming out and, like, I’m going to talk about it here. So, like, I guess we should just talk about it.
Brewtal Truth: Books, Beer & Brann Dailor
April 24, 2015 Andrew Bonazelli
OK, Seattle, the “Missing Link” tour featuring Clutch, Mastodon and Big Business rolls into town Sunday for a big hairy rock show at the Showbox SoDo. It’s already sold out, but there’s a free event happening down the street at Schooner Exact Brewing Co. before the show that anyone can attend.
Lucifer’s Fall Rise from Down Under (Stream New Album)
April 24, 2015 Daniel Lake
Australian doom duo Lucifer’s Fall remind us to hitch our collective misery and universal disappointment to a good beat and some killer licks with their (triply) self-titled debut, out soon on Hammerheart Records.
Hall Of Fame Countdown: Celtic Frost’s Morbid Tales
April 23, 2015 Justin Norton
We’re starting a new feature here at the Deciblog. Since we’ve inducted so many classic albums in the course of our decade-plus existence we’re going to do our best to rank songs on these classic albums. First up is Celtic Frost’s classic mini LP Morbid Tales, which was released in 1984 and inducted in 2007.
Danny Lilker’s Short Retirement: Stream Blurring
April 22, 2015 Justin Norton
Last we checked wasn’t Brutal Truth/SOD/Nuclear Assault impresario and longtime Decibel friend Danny Lilker retiring? Well, that didn’t take too long. The guy just put out another grindcore record!
Undersmile: The Best Band at Roadburn a Certain Writer Didn’t See
April 22, 2015 Adrien Begrand
When you attend Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, The Netherlands, you’re going to have to make some difficult choices, because with four separate venues going at the same time, you are not going to see all bands. Especially if you’re like me, and are such a total fanboy when it comes to a handful of acts that you insist on seeing their complete set.
STREAMING: Shape of Despair “Monotony Fields”
April 21, 2015 Chris Dick
“‘Monotony Fields’, is a song which reflects the album and its atmosphere the most for us. Slow trip into the mind of desperation,” says Shape of Despair in a band-released statement.
Click to read more and stream the premier of “Monotony Fields.”
Decibel Tour IV Is Dead. Long Live Decibel Tour IV!
April 20, 2015 Andrew Bonazelli
We’re not gonna hurt ourselves patting our own backs, and we’re not even going to TRY to give ourselves a reacharound (the top of the masthead is separated by a couple states anyway); we’re just going to offer our sincerest thanks to all the bands, promoters, venues, managers, crew and fans who made the fourth…
STREAMING: SWARÞ “Omines Pestilentiae”
April 20, 2015 Chris Dick
SWARÞ’s origins and members are unknown. The group (could be quartet or a solo outfit), however, have managed to capture the imagination of black metallers everywhere over the course of three stridently evil demos. The first issue of SWARÞ’s demos, called Omines Pestilentiae, were issued last year as a double LP. Now, the CD version is on the black horizon. To celebrate the release of Omines Pestilentiae on CD, Decibel has teamed up with SWARÞ (no, we don’t know WHO they are) to premiere the entire Omines Pestilentiae in its entirety. The abyss is waiting…
Follow the leap into the abyss to stream Omines Pestilentiae:
VIDEO: Order of Apollyon “Our Flowers are the Sword and the Dagger”
April 17, 2015 Chris Dick
Comprised of members from Aosoth, Antaeus, and Temple of Baal, France’s The Order of Apollyon aren’t the joking type. You won’t find jokes about gurgling menstrual blood-both for supper or day trips to the epicurean gynaecologist—that’s saved for the group’s gore-grind project, cutely named Genital Grinder. Instead, The Order of Apollyon are solely focused on flat-black darkness and the evil that swirls menacingly within.
Click below to view their blasphemous video:
Noisem Spark Up Sophomore Stunner in the June Issue
April 17, 2015 Andrew Bonazelli
They turned — and decapitated — heads opening the 2014 Decibel Tour, they “defiled” the Flexi Series, and their debut was our ninth favorite record of 2013. Now the teenage thrashers of Noisem have graduated to Decibel‘s cover, and they’ve revved up a worthy successor in Blossoming Decay. We chronicle the Baltimore quintet’s fast ascent…
LIVE REVIEW: SOOTHING THE CREAK IN MY BONES AT THE DARK ROOTS OF THRASH TOUR II – TESTAMENT/EXODUS/SHATTERED SUN, TORONTO 4/15/15
April 16, 2015 Kevin Stewart-Panko
Metal is falling deeper and deeper into a retro-obsessed morass. As such, folks will forever debate both sides of the ‘should they or shouldn’t they be digging out old treasures/does the old school crowd care about the new school stuff/does the new school crowd care about the old school stuff/should the band in question have broken up years ago’ arguments. Tonight, and this tour as a whole, is a solid indication that everyone on all sides of all arguments is both right and wrong. The Dark Roots of Thrash tour demonstrates that the entire span of a given band’s career means different things to different groups of people and everyone is valid in expressing their love of whatever era of a band they happen to love.
Read the rest of the review (and retro commentary) after the jump.
Introducing Green Death: Stream “Gates Of Hell”
April 15, 2015 Justin Norton
Green Hell. Septic Death. Green Death? Yes, that’s the moniker for a Des Moines thrash band looking to restore Iowa’s reputation in the extreme metal world after decades of Slipknot. We actually picked up on Green Death in our print edition, with an effusive review that said: “this Des Moines outfit plays a classy brand…
Khaotika Post Tribute Video to Fallen Drummer
April 15, 2015 Andrew Bonazelli
We’re one week removed from the terrible van crash that took the lives of three members of occult metal band Khaotika and USBM outfit Wormreich. Khaotika frontwoman Lariyah Hayes asked us to share the following tribute video for drummer Nick Crisostomo, who died in the accident. Yesterday would have been his 26th birthday. Be careful out…
Kjetil-Vidar “Frost” Haraldstad on Satyricon’s Night at the Opera
April 15, 2015 Adrien Begrand
Back on September 8, 2013 Satyricon staged a special show at the Oslo Opera House in Oslo, Norway, in which the black metal veterans performed alongside the Norwegian National Opera Chorus. The end result was exactly what anyone would expect, the band’s distinct music given more drama and gravitas thanks to the haunting vocals by the 60-member choir. The concert was filmed and recorded, and on May 1 Napalm Records will be releasing Live at the Opera as a special DVD/CD package. It’s a spellbinding performance – check out the performance of “Die By My Hand” after the jump – and we recently caught up with drummer Frost to talk about this release, and what’s next for Satyricon.
Read the interview and check out the video after the jump.
STREAMING: Shining “IX – Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, Ends”
April 14, 2015 Chris Dick
Decibel sits down with Shining firebrand Niklas Kvarforth for a quick Q&A before premiering Shining’s new album, IX – Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, Ends, in its entirety. Stare into the abyss, please. You’re known to court controversy. Is controversy part of the overall plan?Niklas Kvarforth: I guess I have been accused of courting some kind of…
Tales From the Metalnomicon: Michael T. Fournier & Dead Trend
April 13, 2015 Shawn Macomber
Whether he’s teaching punk rock history at Tufts, lovingly teasing out the deets of the Minutemen’s Double Nickels on the Dime, or weaving an equal parts elegant and gritty tale of New Hampshire have-nots attempting to transcend circumstance in his lovely, affecting Swing State, Michael T. Fournier brings the heavy to his work. The rising novelist/critic took the hardcore…
Gettin’ Mathy with Kehlvin and Fleshworld
April 9, 2015 Kevin Stewart-Panko
We’re all familiar with math rock and math metal, but how much rock and metal has actually been written about math? For all your number crunching fun, we’d like to turn your direction towards To Deny Everything That’s Mundane, a split release set to be imminently dropped like a weighty textbook of epic proportions…