3… 2… get obliterated in more ways than 1 this New Year’s Eve!

I’m no more or less happy to drink my way across tonight’s hallowed boundary between old and soon-to-be-old than I have been any other year.  I’m certainly more than willing to present you with five of this year’s best blog posts.

We’re pretty sure you want to spend your time today hanging with family and friends, stocking up on all sorts of imbibables or preparing for a raging night out on the town, so in the interest of all that, we’ll keep today’s introduction to Kelowna, British Columbia’s Gomorrah short and sweet.

Case’s passion for the heavy stuff runneth over like crazy.

West of Everything Lies Death
Not exactly lacking direction
dB Rating: 8/10

Eyes Alive, the sophomore offering from Texas’ premiere purveyors of “Alaskan Mountain Metal” Turbid North, is essentially a master class in how to meld the best of various extreme metal subgenres in clever and effective ways without sacrificing any of the primal potency that makes great metal great.

Best Underground Metal Tapes of the Year , pt. II, featuring Ghûllzaraën of Necromantic Worship, hidden messages, Eli W. of Spectral Voice, unpronounceable band names, Hansel of Caligari Records, quotes from the underground and so much more! 

On the two-year anniversary of his death, we look back on Lemmy’s in-depth Decibel cover story.

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 Dorothy Pendleton, mutha of SubRosa’s Sarah Pendleton. 

This year, French label Les Acteurs de L’Ombre launched Emanations, a division meant to spotlight emerging local talent with limited cassette and CD releases, and several interesting recordings have surfaced as a result.