A lot of people were digging Vex’s 2010 debut album, Thanatopsis but even though there was a buzz in the underground surrounding the Texan’s weird genre-splicing take on death metal Memorious still has the capacity to surprise. Looking at the bare facts is misleading; Horror Pain Gore Death Productions are writing the checks, Vex are…

Coventry’s mighty Cathedral are retiring in style this spring, following the release of swansong The Last Spire. And your friends at Decibel have the first new music from Lee Dorrian’s doom institution in nearly three years, debuting via our Flexi Series! It’s unclear if “Vengeance of the Blind Dead” is a nod to the cult…

Everything is cyclical. Especially in music. Go far enough in the future and Crabcore will be the next wave of cool and innovative (god, let’s hope not). For hardcore, it hasn’t been an easy decade since its popular upswing in the mid to late ’90s and eventual zenith in the early ’00s, but that’s about…

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a new twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors… The general outline of the rock bio is by now well established — young, innocent spitfire achieves dream against all odds only to find fame, riches, and rock n’ roll excess does…

Because every day another band records another song.  Because 83% of those songs are unlistenable and you can’t be bothered to sift through the dreck.  Because metal is about not giving a shit and waking your own personal storm.  Because this post was up last week for about a minute, but you didn’t see it,…

Before bastard sons begat cunting daughters, flyswatter stakes were driven through chests and pleasures thought unobtained fully experienced, California thrashers Slayer were hell-bent on leveling not just previous milestones, but any band with an inkling of heaviness.

Mount Pleasant, Michigan’s Cloud Rat play grind and they play it really well. They have a new album in the holster and on the ready entitled Moksha, courtesy the fine folks at Halo of Flies. What follows is an interview with guitarist Rorik Brooks and some vids and crap I lifted from their website. Check…

It’s only been a year since Graveyard last came to New York City, and coupled with last week’s sub-freezing temperatures and a second show in Brooklyn two nights later, I was curious to see just how many people would show up to Friday night’s performance. By the time I arrived at the Bowery Ballroom a…

As Decibel friend Brian Lew (aka Umlaut) says: the metal Gods work in mysterious ways. So there’s no need to tell you how we heard about Jason Statts, a Decibel reader and metal fan confined to a wheelchair after he was robbed and shot leaving his first ever gig about five years ago. The attack…

There’s a time when two Dicks are better than one. But we’re not talking about porn here. Or, some swinger party in Urals. No, sirs. When the universe conspires to bring Chris Dick (me) and Chris Dyck (Anciient guitarist/vocalist) together, it means something. What exactly? Let’s leave it up to the cast of Ancient Aliens…