Three guys in pig masks? While we’d like to think that Purify the Horror were channelling the heist scene from BMX Bandits when they were working on their aesthetic, but it’s probably the whole anonymity thing that they were going for. Apart from the mortal threats issued during said bank job, the “Australian Goonies” doesn’t…

When was the last time you entered a cemetery with less than honorable intentions? Yesterday? Hail! Never? Well, you have some serious work to do. But what do cemeteries, (possibly) illegal activities, and California’s Ghoul have in common? Who the fuck knows?! We do know the Ghoulies latest EP, Intermediate Level Hard-Core, makes us want…

 Last Friday, August 2nd, I spent most of the day in a Washington, DC suburb to take in one of the oddest summer festivals around: Summer Slaughter 2013. Past years have found this tour loaded with distinctively death metal acts, abounding with brutality and breakdowns. This year’s edition of the tour certainly included a fair bit of…

Given the opportunity to write about craft beer every month in Decibel has been eye-opening. The idea that our “Brewtal Truth” column would have lasted more than four years (and counting) and even spawn a book—The Brewtal Truth Guide to Extreme Beers, out in November—is pretty amazing. Now it’s time to bring a little “Brewtal…

Today’s the first day of four of 2013’s This is Hardcore Festival. Last week, we spoke to owner and operator, Joe “Hardcore” Mckay about his background, the fest’s humble early years and most everything else concerning the annual Philly throwdown. Read it here. This week, we tracked down members from a few of the 54…

As many notable websites have pointed out this week (Grantland and HitFix to name two), it’s been ten years since The O.C.–and one of the best first seasons of television ever made–premiered on August 5, 2003. While I would have loved to come up with a post that actually related to Sandy Cohen and company,…

Neill Jameson is best known to readers as Imperial, frontman of the excellent USBM band Krieg. Along with Blake Judd, Wrest and Thurston Moore (!) he was also part of the black metal project Twilight. I got to know Neill during an interview about three years ago and we’ve kept in touch since. As our…

The stars have aligned. The planets in strange conjunction. The winds of time are flowing in reverse. What would the odds be that Swedish death metallers Evocation—long ago resurrected by revenge—are releasing a covers EP, Excised and Anatomised, a mere month before reanimated death metal lords Carcass are set to release the follow-up to Swansong,…

Thrill Jockey are known mostly for their weird post-rock and experimental psych acts like Trans Am, Barn Owl, Eternal Tapestry, and Tortoise. And that stuff is great, and we cover it, but it’s always a slightly uncomfortable match with the magazine. Recently, though, they’ve expanded into full-blown metal madness with Liturgy, the Body, and now…

We’ll make this into concise as possible, so as to allow readers to break on through to the other side that much quicker: A) False Prism and Cavern Apothecary — presented by Sadgiqacea and Hivelords respectively — are two of the best, most intriguing mindfuck metal releases of the year thus far. B) The bands…