Alright, doodz…get your flat-brimmed ball caps out and your buttoned-down plaid shirts to the ready

Formed out of teenage jitters, a can-/will-do work ethic and long-term (possibly unhealthy) exposure to Neurosis, Swans and the Melvins, Boston’s Isis were in many respects different from what the rest of New England had to offer in the late ’90s.

We’re all getting old. The bands we grew up idolizing are slowing down, retired or making geriatric mockeries of themselves. And sometimes we unfairly and harshly lash out at the newest crop of musicians for not being as heavy or “tough” as we were. I was one of those young, doe-eyed metal kids once, who…

** The original Decibel interview appeared in issue #58 (HERE), but since the Swedes are slower than Candlemass when issuing albums, we felt it was kinda cool to necro-post the full Unanimated interview. Also, Unanimated claims to be working on a new album without drummer Peter Stjärnvind, who left his stool post in February 2012,…

Of all the “traditional metal” albums that have come out in the past year, one that’s snuck up on a lot of us here at Decibel is Residual Alcatraz, the debut by Greensboro, North Carolina’s Dogbane. Not only did the album get a positive review recently, but also we were honored to profile the band…

The tribal beats, the crunching metal guitar and the half rap/half sung vocals of Chuck Mosley coalesced into something altogether original. You can unfortunately perhaps heap some blame for nu metal on these dudes, but what they created at the time was in fact revolutionary. It was like Killing Joke, Metallica and the Red Hot Chili Peppers swapped members for a jam session and came up with a new genre.

These should be top-of-the-world days for Vilipend bassist Mike Crossley. The two early streams off the Toronto band’s upcoming Inamorata 12-inch — “Last Stand of the Hopeless Romantic” and “Great White Nothing” — have earned an enthusiastic from fans of chaotic noisecore aggression and a sure-to-be-killer tour with Meek is Murder is imminent. Alas, some…

English N.W.O.B.H.M./doom elders Pagan Altar will release remastered EP The Time Lord through Shadow Kingdom Records on 11 September 2012. Having previously only available limited vinyl runs, The Time Lord has hitherto harder to find than a taxi on New Year’s Eve, a pint of unicorn milk, etc… This is the first time it has…

Denial Of God formed in Denmark in 1991. Right in the middle of the Golden Age of Swedish death metal and the nascent stages—Abruptum had just started to kick coffins, for example—what would be come the a worldwide black metal scene. Though few bands had full-lengths out—save for Bathory (now in the Viking phase), Root,…

Nuclear death were one of those bands that you really had to be there for. Formed in the depths of the Arizona desert in 1986 and dragged kicking and screaming through metal’s collective consciousness until 2000, the original trio was still in high school when they concocted what was to become their most beloved and influential recording.