If you’re in Los Angeles this coming Friday and Saturday, make your way down to the Nomad Gallery for the two days of the second New Weird America Festival. If on Friday you’re choosing to not embark upon a sympathetic celebration of the socialist welfare state to the north known as Canada (July 1st is Canada Day,…

So Hideous, My Love… may not have the best band name, but musically they’re the best post-insert-subgenre-here band since Arvo Pärt joined Burzum and the daring duo started covering Godspeed You! Black Emperor B-sides. Seriously though, Pärt hasn’t joined Varg in any capacity, but So Hideous, My Love… feels like the next step in whatever…

Photo: Birtha, armed to the teeth with proto-metal chops. To combat the impeding death of print journalism, I still subscribe to plenty of magazines. SPIN happens to be one of them. In between articles about bands that I can stomach as easily as putrid flesh, there are bits I enjoy, one of which is the…

Some say the first wave of black metal started in England. We happen to be of the opinion — a silly one, mind you — that the first wave of black metal started, at least sonically, in America in 1969, with the release of New York-based Cromagnon’s sole album, Orgasm. We’re not the first ones…

Welcome to The Lazarus Pit, a biweekly look at should-be classic metal records that don’t get nearly enough love, stuff that’s essential listening for students of extreme metal that you’ve probably never heard of.  Stuff that we’re too lazy to track down the band members to do a Hall Of Fame for.  This week, we…

After the untimely passing of Jared Southwick, another icon is no longer with us. Eric Swenson, one of the most visionary figures in the history of skateboarding, committed grisly suicide in front of a police station in San Francisco. The 64-year old Swenson, who co-founded both Independent Trucking Co and Thrasher magazine, put a gun…

5. MANAGERS: Self-managing a band is a load of work. Arch Enemy does it, actually. But unless you have a few A-types who actually know how things work, it’s probably a good idea to get a manager. Again, someone you can trust. Someone with a sterling reputation. Someone who manages other bands in good standing….

While the news of his grave condition had been known, it still comes as a terrible shock that guitarist Jared Southwick has passed away from a liver and kidney condition in Muncie, Indiana. Most well known as the amazing six-stringer for The Dream is Dead, some like myself also got to see his incredible talents…

David Hall is the director of Disgorge, Mexico: The Movie, Axis of Eden: The Feature Film, Maryland Deathfest: The Movie and Maryland Deathfest: The Movie II. He attended Maryland Deathfest last May 26 – 29 with the intention of shooting the second sequel. Suffice it to say, things did not go as planned. Hunker down…

Almost every band has that album: you know, the critically and/or commercially reviled dud in an otherwise passable-to-radical back catalog. Well, every Wednesday morning, a Decibel staffer or special guest will take to the Deciblog to bitch and moan at length as to why everybody’s full of shit and said dud is, in fact, The…