Saxon‘s NWOBHM building block Wheels of Steel enters Decibel’s Hall of Fame.

The New Wave of British Heavy Metal wasn’t a movement. Until it was a movement. Early on, bands—mostly categorized as hard rock—merely created music the only way they knew how.

Respected metal culture chronicler, incisive critic, longtime Decibel contributor, and all-around exemplary human being D. Shawn Bosler was involved in a horrific car accident just outside San Diego over the holidays, suffering “numerous and serious injuries, requiring several complicated surgeries.”

Celebrate the death of 2016 with Philly-based label/distro Horror Pain Gore Death Productions.

Check out this exclusive premiere of the track, “Slaughterers of the Flocks,” from Seattle’s cruelest bunch of blasphemers, Crurifragium, off their debut album Beasts of the Temple of Satan.

The newly-expanded quartet rips into sludgy hard rock on “Disintegrate.” 

Because New Year countdowns are all the rage and never get boring, count down the songs on Plague Soundscapes with us.  Or against us.

Bethlehem
To live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning
dB rating: 9/10

One writer picks five favorite Decibel web articles of 2016.

On this week’s Demo:listen, with a little help from some of our friends, we look back on 2016, a year of great demos.