When you attend Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, The Netherlands, you’re going to have to make some difficult choices, because with four separate venues going at the same time, you are not going to see all bands. Especially if you’re like me, and are such a total fanboy when it comes to a handful of acts that you insist on seeing their complete set. 

Meet the new ruler of the Planet of the Apes, listen to his music, and enjoy some cocaine-dipped bananas with our exclusive premiere of The Humans Soundtrack Volume II.

“‘Monotony Fields’, is a song which reflects the album and its atmosphere the most for us. Slow trip into the mind of desperation,” says Shape of Despair in a band-released statement.

Click to read more and stream the premier of “Monotony Fields.”

Last week, we brought you an exclusive stream of Savage Land, the forthcoming debut LP from Death-worshipping supergroup Gruesome. This week, vocalist/guitarist Matt Harvey (Exhumed, Dekapitator, the “Death to All” tour) breaks down the inspiration for each song and provides some hilarious insight on what it’s like to write and record music that’s delightfully derivative.

Abyssal Gods
Colin Marston mixed and mastered the fucker, too
dB Rating: 8/10

We’re not gonna hurt ourselves patting our own backs, and we’re not even going to TRY to give ourselves a reacharound (the top of the masthead is separated by a couple states anyway); we’re just going to offer our sincerest thanks to all the bands, promoters, venues, managers, crew and fans who made the fourth…

SWARÞ’s origins and members are unknown. The group (could be quartet or a solo outfit), however, have managed to capture the imagination of black metallers everywhere over the course of three stridently evil demos. The first issue of SWARÞ’s demos, called Omines Pestilentiae, were issued last year as a double LP. Now, the CD version is on the black horizon. To celebrate the release of Omines Pestilentiae on CD, Decibel has teamed up with SWARÞ (no, we don’t know WHO they are) to premiere the entire Omines Pestilentiae in its entirety. The abyss is waiting…

Follow the leap into the abyss to stream Omines Pestilentiae:
 

Comprised of members from Aosoth, Antaeus, and Temple of Baal, France’s The Order of Apollyon aren’t the joking type. You won’t find jokes about gurgling menstrual blood-both for supper or day trips to the epicurean gynaecologist—that’s saved for the group’s gore-grind project, cutely named Genital Grinder. Instead, The Order of Apollyon are solely focused on flat-black darkness and the evil that swirls menacingly within.

Click below to view their blasphemous video:

They turned — and decapitated — heads opening the 2014 Decibel Tour, they “defiled” the Flexi Series, and their debut was our ninth favorite record of 2013. Now the teenage thrashers of Noisem have graduated to Decibel‘s cover, and they’ve revved up a worthy successor in Blossoming Decay. We chronicle the Baltimore quintet’s fast ascent…

Poland’s one-man, one-woman (and thus, probably Church approved) blackened frost-treaders Mornië Utúlië offer one of those perfect blends of intent, image and music.  Calling a black metal record Sny (Polish for “dreams” and, coincidentally – thanks Google Translate – Afrikaans for “cuts”) and draping the cover in a field of stars certainly sets up expectations that this might be a toothless, undistorted bliss-out, but Mornië Utúlië’s adventures into the void turn out to be way more Darkspace roar than Alcest sigh.  Like the subtle merging of Nosferatu and nebula on the cover, Mornië Utúlië throttle up the terror in in their yawning darkness and never settle for mere atmospheric meandering.

We asked Bartosz Brożek, the man behind the music, about his journey and his newest creation, so you can read all about it after the jump while you stab through the cosmos with Sny and a video for the late-album cut “W Nocy Płynie Chłodny Wiatr” featuring gal-vocalist Ewa Kleszcz.  If you dig, be sure to head over to the Mornië Utúlië’s Facebook site or Bandcamp page, where the album lives.

Live long, prosper, eat the weak and fear your dreams!