With all the music that comes across the Decibel desk in a month (hell, in a single week), I find it can help to stick labels on music that I want to be sure to spend time with.  Earlier this year, when Owl’s Into the Absolute EP came down, I tagged it with the descriptor “weird death metal”…

Sloths is a Portland-based trio who’ve been described as a cross between Botch, Slint, Old Man Gloom, Shellac, Converge and NOT the 60’s garage/punk band of the same name who recently reconvened in a hail of revivalism and the discovery of their old 45s going for shitloads on eBay! For these particular Sloths, a good…

Bigger ass? Kim Kardashian or Kim Kardashian’s ass? Keeling Over and Dying Happy This past Thursday, it dawned on me that my ‘lude had worn off and I was actually watching a football game where the Cleveland Browns had a lead in the fourth quarter, in a division game, and if they won, they’d be…

Last week, we brought you the first part of Aaron John Gregory’s “epic love letter to music.” When he left off, Giant Squid‘s vocalist/guitarist was in some baby cephalopod bands (The Pedestrians and The Connection) and listening to tons of Subhumans and Citizen Fish. Now, of course, the Californians have a fantastic new record out…

Ah, Mysticum, how you’ve been missed. There was so much talk for so long about the comeback album Planet Satan that we were convinced the record was either a myth or an elaborate troll. But no: Planet Satan was released this fall after decades of speculation, marking the return of a band audacious enough in…

Anatomy of Habit, Ciphers + Axioms (Relapse): Featuring members of Tortoise, Indian, and Bloodyminded, this Chicago noise rock supergroup has joined forces with producer Sanford Parker to create a spellbinding two-track, 40-minute opus that expertly blends dissonance and melody, aggression and introspection. The overall effect is not unlike that of Psalm Zero’s excellent debut from…

Because synthesizers are awesome, and movie soundtracks are awesome, we asked the duo of British film composer Paul Lawler and American drummer AE Pattera (Zombi/Majeure), collectively known as Contact, to put together a playlist for us with their favorite soundtrack tunes and some words on each. This week, we have Lawler’s picks; check back next…

No, this is not that dude who was in Marilyn Manson for about the length of a football season (that’s Zim Zum). This is ZOM and they come from Ireland bearing blackened death metal. Actually, they list their hometown as ANTI MATTER UNIVERSE on Facebook which sort of has the same ring as “From Parts…

My review of Dave Hofer’s excellent Perpetual Conversion: 30 Years & Counting in the Life of Metal Veteran Dan Lilker — out now on Handshake, Inc — will appear in an upcoming issue of Decibel, but the book is such a crazy, inspiring smorgasbord of gonzo metal history/wisdom a distillation of a dozen of its…

Early in 2014, your friends at the Deciblog premiered the self-titled full length from the French sludge metal band Drawers (yes, this is a real thing). My cohort Jonathan Horsley described it as “a heavy album, weighty enough to compromise the lumbar but not quite enough to crush the spirit; shit, it’s heavy and gentle,…