Leave Zakk Wylde alone. He’s getting exposure for metal and that’s a good thing. Such was the gist of a surprising number of reader responses to my post last week poking fun at the Black Label Society guitarist for appearing with that metallic theater arts goofball on American Idol. (Alas, these missives remained but a…

In 1993, Burzum mastermind and sole member Varg “Count Grishnackh” Vikernes both embodied Norwegian black metal’s violent strain of pagan nihilism and sought to defy the genre’s increasingly stultifying conventions.

“Γοργόνειον III”, the front cover painting commissioned by Relapse Records for Horseback’s double album “The Gorgon Tongue” has quite a bit of history behind it.

I’m not a big proponent of hyping a band based upon how few members they have. What I mean is I don’t love descriptors like “power trio” because so what if three guys can make as much noise as four or five. That doesn’t make a song inherently better. But with all of that said,…

The disconnect between classical music (all types) and heavy metal (all types) is probably less to do with musical form (although blues-based heavy metal is obviously divergent) than class. See, people into classical music are largely of a different economic, educational, and social background from dudes who headbang and play air guitar to “Fucked with…

Every other Friday, Waldo the African Grey Parrot, frontbird of thrash-grind immortals Hatebeak, will get you caught up on the week’s latest “extreme” releases. Waldo here, and while there’s PLENTY of new metal releases to hate on coming up in the next few weeks, your old feathered friend is going to turn DOWN the hate…

Anyone want to add a circle and line over my man K.K. Downing because he has left Judas Priest before their fake farewell tour. One of the band’s founding members has decided to hang up his flying V after 40 goddamn years, citing internal problems with “elements of the band” and management. I’m not sure…

Discovery Channel has Shark Week. Decibel Magazine has Stream Week. We’ve ‘streamiered’ (copyright, please) Septicflesh’s “A Great Mass of Death” (Season of Mist), In Solitude’s “Serpents Are Rising” (Metal Blade), and now we’re saving the best — Decibel Editor-in-Chief Albert Mudrian has officially screamed the following platitude while standing on his desk both hands outstretched…

You ever heard “Piano Metal”? No? Well it fucking sucks.

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…