Decibel‘s publisher, editor-in-chief and managing editor are all baseball guys, but our art director quietly maintains an fierce allegiance to hockey — particularly the Flyers — so we’re sure he’s psyched about the very likely unironic image of southeast Pennsylvania noise-rockers Carved Up above. 

Metal bands have been using literature as inspiration for decades, but for whatever reason, the two worlds seldom intersect when it comes to actual production…writers tend to stay on one side of the room while musicians stare at them from the other. Shuffling around somewhere in the middle are people like Nathan Carson, drummer of Portland-based doom titans Witch Mountain and published author of short fiction.

Noise-rock quartet Kowloon Walled City have gone all-in on slow-burning bad mood.

Battle scenes, H. R. Giger artwork, huge skulls, and pseudo-corpsepaint lead to some confused metalheads. 

Peter Steele might have taken umbrage with the “Softly” in the title — the man had a knack for bluntness — but we’ll give Pinkish Black predecessor the Great Tyrant a pass.

A bit back, I wrote a piece on our blog about how women are treated in metal, and I learned a lot from the experience. The main takeaway? Holy shit, are there a lot of stupid people out there.

Mine is a Black Mouth’s music is pure crunch ‘n’ snarl, a harrowing and inspired avalanche of bassy blasting that is well worth the 20-minute run time.

Bay Area heavyweights Vastum have detonated a new album every two years, and Hole Below is their exceptional, must-hear third.

This particular iteration of Napalm Death was notably short-lived, but the sheer amount the quartet was able to accomplish in a two-year run between the summer of ’87 and summer of ’89 is absolutely mental.

Spaced-out black metal is the best black metal.