If any band has endured and persevered through extreme music’s potential for divisive conservatism and pedantic nit-picking, it’s the Locust.

Get ready for the heaviest death metal record of the year with this exclusive premiere of “Rot in Confinement,” from Scorched‘s debut album, Echoes of Dismemberment. 

To suggest that I’ve been excited for Black Table to release their debut full-length would be something of an understatement. 

Oaken Palace Records teamed up with noise godfather Merzbow for a half-hour drone/noise release whose profits will go to the Kakapo Recovery Trust with the intent of helping this aviary species grow to more robust numbers.

MONO‘s video for “Requiem for Hell” is an emotional and visually beautiful companion to the song. Also included: Exclusive Q&A with MONO’s Takaakira “Taka” Goto.

MoRkObOt unleash wordless doom weirdness in this new video for “Ogrog.”

In which our favorite DC-area grindcore staple interviews our favorite 67-year-old grandmother who fronts a grindcore band. You’re welcome. 

Every so often, we take a little time on Mondays to pay tribute to the Muthas! That is, reprinting the adorable metal/maternal Q&As that run in the magazine. Today, enjoy Justin Norton’s chat with Bernice Rakes, mother of Richard Hoak (Brutal Truth/Total Fucking Destruction).

Stillicide
Natural-born explorers get transcending genre just right
dB rating: 8/10

The first Justify Your Shitty Taste I wrote for Decibel covered, in detail, Dissection’s Reinkaos album, Jon Nödtveidt’s divisive, not-at-all-like Storm of the Light’s Bane comeback album.