Look at that picture.  Seriously, stop reading these worthless scrawlings and LOOK UP THERE.  The artwork associated with Blut Aus Nord records has always kicked a certain amount of ass, but a trio of sculptures depicting humans in various anguished poses sprouting branches from every which limb?  Genius.  Pile on the hand-headed snakes and chaotic…

Happy Halloween, kiddies. We’ve got some spooky stuff lined up for you. CRADLE OF FILTH release The Manticore and Other Horrors, and you know it’s, like, haunting and stuff. This is pretty gothy, boys and girls, and this one’s a little more punk, meaning the riffs aren’t as complex as some of their past efforts,…

Golden Void is a band that I stumbled across thanks to the fine fuckers over at Thrill Jockey who pimped them as an outfit inspired by “Sabbath, Hawkwind and rounded out by Robert Fripp, Jimi Hendrix, and even some Can in there as well.” Those of you familiar with the instrumental, psychedelic, Fat Albert-ness (yeah,…

In anticipation of next week’s release of his band’s fourth record Lovelessness, Bison B.C. guitarist/vocalist James Farwell penned one of the most introspective and honest playlists we’ve ever run. He also sent over the following introduction, which is fortunate because we could not have put it any better. Listen along to his picks here. “Here…

“Madness is like gravity. All it takes is a little push.” So said Heath Ledger’s eminently quotable Joker in The Dark Knight. And there is perhaps no better push than new material from the two maniacs behind Anaal Nathrakh. Decibel is happy to give you a sneak peak of “Todos Somos Humanos,” off the upcoming…

Informed by early Emperor, inspired by Anaal Nathrakh and motivated by long-ignored black metallers Mysticum, Rage Nucléaire might just be Canada’s best new black metal outfit. There seem to be too few from a country dubbed, “The Great White North”, but I digress. Anyway, the history of Rage Nucléaire surprises. No, the French-Canadians weren’t part…

Name five great metal bands. Here’s the first ones that come to my mind: Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Metallica and Slayer. What makes them great? Priest and Maiden have iconic, virtuosic vocalists. Metallica, Black Sabbath and Slayer more or less all created their own sort of subgenres. But the one thing all five…

For the majority of the nearly 50,000 people who bought their tickets to one or more of the Great American Beer Festival sessions (which took place in Denver last weekend) when they went on sale last summer, the opportunity to attend this massive beer tasting event is probably the pinnacle of their craft beer-drinking year….

We’re about two weeks out from the release of American Baby, the driving, effervescent debut from ex-Torche/current MonstrO guitarist Juan Montoya’s instrumental metal outfit Stallone. Burly as their namesake, Limited Fanfare Records describes the EP as “riff oriented, drop-tuned melodies combined with an uplifting expression of aggressive energy” and that seems pretty spot on, though…

Finland’s Behexen have the good taste to traffic in occult black blasphemies, and the good sense not to bludgeon their audience, um, senseless.  Christian-slaughtering speeds certainly take their due, but Behexen take the time to smell the burnt-offering entrails, too.  The year 2012 finds the occult Scandinavian crew unleashing its fourth full-length recording in its…