Ontario’s Biipiigwan is a quizzical beast of a band. From their moniker and line-up’s open-door policy to their sound and members being spread out across this humongous province of ours, questions pertaining to how, why, where and who usually abound when the band is the topic of conversation. The driving force behind this are-they-metal?-are-they-hardcore?-are-they-noise-rock?-are-they-sludge-doom?-just-what-the-hell-are-they? is…

The day Christians have long feared, the day that would part the Heavens and kick-start the apocalypse, is upon us. In the unsuspecting locale of Oklahoma City, a group of enterprising Satanists is working (not via hex or spell, mind you, but the legitimate channels of public policy) to place a gigantic statue of Baphomet…

The last time I saw Alcest live was March 2012. Neige and company headlined a show at Brooklyn’s Public Assembly (a more fitting setting for them than opening for Enslaved at the Gramercy Theater) and brought along Deafheaven and Vaura. Given the creative leaps both of those openers have made since then with their respective…

Readers might already have a heads up on the new Cannabis Corpse album From Wisdom To Baked, due this spring (if not check out the studio short in our February issue). The band also has a “joint” project with Ghoul that’s out now on Tankcrimes. Stream the entire Splatterhash split below and order it here….

(photo by Alex Hardie) Year-end lists are done with, folders of digital promos are archived (or in some particularly terrible albums, deleted), and now it’s time to focus on a fresh year of new music. Here’s hoping the expected big albums deliver, and that even more great new releases await discovery. I try to be…

Apparently Waldgeflüster means “Whispering Forest” in German, which isn’t actually an inaccurate description – well, until the black metal part kicks in, and then I guess it’s more of a shrieking forest. The solo project of the dude who calls himself Winterherz, Waldgeflüster weaves together black metal and pastoral neo-folk in an unexpectedly organic way….

Following up a Kamikaze Mission is a no small challenge, but M.I.A., the decade-in-the-making barn burner of a comeback record from reconfigured/reborn Backstabbers Inc, proves a gloriously triumphant gut-check collection of anthemic dark hardcore — not to mention a helluva way to kick off the new year! Decibel is proud to present an exclusive stream…

Consider this here, folks, as an unofficial, off-the-cuff (read: poorly researched and impulsive) addendum to Decibel #112’s Top 20 2014 preview. This being the Internet, consider the following dispatch to be largely free of firm facts such as album/song titles, empirical data (release dates), and official words to corroborate our conjecture as to when said…

Charmand Grimloch (aka Joachim Rygg) was, at one time, black metal’s preeminent keyboard player. His stints with Emperor as a session player propelled him to heights unknown. Well, his black metal solo project Tartaros produced notoriety, but nothing on the scale of what he accomplished by coat tailing Ihsahn and the boys. After Tartaros went…

Happy New Year, you pecking geeks. There’s not much going on at the end of the year, and not much going on in the beginning of the year either. I know I’ll sound like a mimic over the next few columns stating that again and again, and you know, parrots don’t like to mimic. EXHUMED/IRON…