Happy 100 Call & Response: Mr. Ed Guesses Scores Given Old Decibel Reviews

January 18, 2013

Have you heard?  Decibel Magazine just launched its 100th issue!  We’ve kinda kept it quiet, only hyping it every other day or so for only the past several months.  Turns out we’re hosting a celebration show in Philly this weekend!  Who knew?  I wonder who will headline… As this extremely extreme monument edged closer to…

Interview with Switchblade

January 17, 2013

Let’s face it: there are too many bands out there releasing too much music for any one magazine-blog-social media platform combo to cover it all adequately. Or at least cover it all to the adequate degree that all those bands and PR people would want to be covered. Stuff gets lost in the shuffle the…

Decibrity Playlist: Ancient VVisdom

January 17, 2013

The dudes in Ancient VVisdom’s have already put together a pretty impressive resume considering they only got started in late 2009. For starters, the Austinites have put out a split and debut full-length and hit the road with Ghost and Blood Ceremony (and, along with Pallbearer and Royal Thunder, will be supporting Enslaved starting January…

STREAMING: The Resistance “Face to Face”

January 17, 2013

Guitarist Jesper Strömblad has dusted more bands than any prominent guitarist from Sweden. From In Flames and HammerFall to All Ends and recently resurrected Ceremonial Oath, Mr. Strömblad’s hasn’t had it easy. Same goes for his co-axeman Glenn Ljungström. First he bolted from In Flames and then Dimension Zero. But if any two guitarists command…

Anchors Aweigh: Clamfight full album stream and interview

January 16, 2013

Clamfight has a much better ring to it than, say, Mollusk Warfare (and we already have Insect Warfare). We’d quickly exhaust our nautical jokes in a sentence or two so we’ll leave it at the headline. Here’s the scoop: for your listening pleasure below is Clamfight’s new album I Versus The Glacier. This writer digs…

CONTEST: Feel like a Viking. Win Turisas swag!

January 16, 2013

It’s been ages since we hosted a contest where a band donned warpaint and rampaged heshers from sea to shining sea. In fact, we can’t recall if we’ve ever hosted a contest by a band as visually unique as Turisas. Sure, those old Darkthrone or Khold photos were cool, but Turisas take the “corpse” out…

STREAMING: Holy Grail’s “Riding the Void”

January 15, 2013

Do you guys like totally ripping heavy metal? No? Well, okay, guess I’ll go away… Haha, just kidding! You nerds will never be rid of me. As a special Tuesday treat, here’s the new Holy Grail record, in its entirety. Our own Adrien Begrand has been losing his shit over this since he heard it,…

In Search of “Solace”

January 15, 2013

Formed in 2005, instrumental heavy space rock outfit Cloud Minder was the first band to sign to Philadelphia “psych doom” label Anthropic Records, toured extensively with such kindred spirits as Earth, This Will Destroy You, and Film School, and were beginning to round the corner into what felt to them like even more sublime creative…

INTERVIEW: Jason “Venien” Ventura of VON on blood, Satan, and being unconsciously black metal

January 14, 2013

Even though VON have been kicking around since ’87, are pretty much responsible for Watain’s existence (their name, at least), they only managed to get their shit together and release debut LP, Satanic Blood, in October of last year. There are mitigating circumstances and all, what with the band splitting and going into what appeared…

Rami Jämsä (Convulse) interviewed

January 14, 2013

What prompted you to return to Convulse? It’s been a very long time.Rami Jämsä: My old pal from Nokia asked [us] to play in his Heavy Metal festival 2012. At first I refused. Then original bass player Juha took contact and showed his interest. Pretty soon it was clear that there was no chance to…