STREAMING: In Solitude “Serpents Are Rising”

April 18, 2011

The retro metal thing hasn’t played itself out quite yet. Sweden’s In Solitude (interviewed in the upcoming dB #80) are, perhaps like countrymen Ghost and Enforcer, on the forefront of the throwback-yet-modern sound emanating from the greatest metal country on planet Earth (my determination; feel free to dispute). Sure, the name In Solitude sounds like…

Hit Balls With Ross the Boss (Dictators/Manowar)

April 18, 2011

Photo: Andrew Savulich You’re probably already aware of the Decibel staff’s somewhat unnaturally obsessive love of baseball. On one side, you have Albert and the Phillies; on the other side, you have Andrew and the Mets. When these teams square off, run for cover. And don’t come out until the following day, when the victor…

Unvested In Vests

April 15, 2011

OK, I’ve never owned a vest. Not sure why. When I was young, I remember older kids around the neighborhood (we’re talking Flint, Michigan here) would sport denim vests proudly over the top of name-a-‘80s-metal-band-or-cola-here t-shirt. It was their uniform. Even in mid-August, they’d walk around in their denim vests (hair picks in the back…

The Lazarus Pit: Wrathchild America’s 3-D

April 15, 2011

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 may not have ever heard of.  Stuff that we’re too lazy to track down the band members to do a Hall Of Fame for.  This…

Decibel’s Internet Round-Up

April 14, 2011

1. You like that Incantation ad? Plenty more old school ephemera at Metal Archaeologist. 2. Another death metal murder, with a kiwi twist. 3. When Metallica was the best band in the world. 4. NPR interviewing Witch Mountain after a 10-year absence. 5. Some dumb shit about metal, Zakk Wylde and American Idol. 6. Gentlemen,…

The Ax Man Cometh

April 14, 2011

Recently retired closer Trevor Hoffman has a clear shot at the Baseball Hall of Fame, courtesy of his gaudy career saves total. He also had one of the greatest intro songs ever as a member of the San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers bullpens—AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells.” As Andrew Bonazelli’s Q&A with former Minnesota Twins/current Padres…

Pictures Worth a Thousand Growls

April 13, 2011

Remember when you saw the cover of our issue with Watain and thought, “Holy shit that photo rules.”

Justify Your Shitty Taste – Dissection’s “Reinkaos”

April 13, 2011

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…

Morbid Angel’s Oh So Morbid Cover Art

April 12, 2011

No secret to anyone familiar with Decibel, its fearless editor-in-chief Albert Mudrian, or the magazine’s highly-trained metal taskforce that “seminal” (their words not ours) Florida outfit Morbid Angel are crucial the existence of proficiently extreme, Lovecraft-informed death metal. Countless—as a quick test of our quantitative use of “countless”, ask your fav band if Morbid Angel…

Exclusive: Stream the New Capsule Album

April 12, 2011

Photo: Mike Ruiz-Unger To loosely quote Ice Cube, today is a good day. The Deciblog is proud to be the only site on the Internut streaming the new album from Miami, FL, hardcore melody makers Capsule. No Ghost is a deliciously dizzying slice of adrenalized pogo-ready jams. It gives you the illusion that your brain…