For a band that doesn’t interview (with anyone!), Ukraine’s Drudkh have a lot to say. Well, musically that is. Over the course of the group’s arboreal career, the Ukrainians have inspired and informed with their atmospheric and reflective black. So, it’s with great honor that we are able to work with Drudkh (and their label,…

I’ll be honest – I was excited to post this video because I literally laughed out loud as soon as the singer popped up on screen. Still, once you get past that initial silliness – well, it doesn’t get any less goofy, but it does get crazy catchy. Not really a surprise, considering that Civil…

If you’re a regular Decibel reader, your ears probably perk up upon hearing the name “Deathwish”, thanks to a certain record label of the same name that consistently puts out quality extreme metal and hardcore. I’m going to have to ask you to just put aside those thoughts about Deafheaven and Code Orange for the…

Agnostic Front has provided their New York brand of hardcore beatdown to generations of listeners. Incredibly, they are still at it it today more than three decades after their formation. Their new album The American Dream Died shows that they haven’t lost their edge even if a few members are a little longer in the…

Chris Barnes possesses a directness impressive even by the standards of his former bandmates in Cannibal Corpse – and we’re talking about dudes that have called recent albums Torture and Kill. He also smells exactly like you’d expect him to, but that’s neither here nor there. His group, Six Feet Under, is back with their…

Tragedy jolted the metal world yesterday morning when a 15-passenger van transporting members of Moribund Records artists Wormreich veered offroad on I-85 in Georgia and crashed into a tree, killing three and hospitalizing eight. The USBM artists were on tour with Khaotika and Kult of Azazel when the driver allegedly fell asleep early Monday morning,…

Oh, man. Brooklyn’s UnWed get shit right, dropping a heartbeat-quickening melodic post-hardcore bomb dead center on the very best of swaggering, churning 90s rock. Hum meets Killing Joke meets Slint featuring members of Hot Water Music, Small Brown Bike, and Gay for Johnny Depp — how the fuck can you beat that? We’ve got the exclusive stream of…

Enslaved recently wrapped up a month-long North American tour that saw them play several tunes off their latest album, In Times—another progressive masterpiece for the band’s impressive portfolio. We talked to vocalist/bassist Grutle Kjellson to find out what the band thinks about the “progressive” label and how that translates to their musical output. What does…

Some shitty news may have flown under the radar last Friday. Swedish heavy metal up-and-comers In Solitude called it a career. The quartet were clearly Decibel favorites. 2011’s The World. The Flesh. The Devil and 2013’s Sister both enjoyed top-five finishes in our annual Top 40 Albums of the Year list, and we were eagerly awaiting…

dB HoF 123

To Mega Therion

Label: Noise
Release date: October 27, 1985

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To Mega Therion is Greek for “The Great Beast.” It’s a pseudonym for the Antichrist in the Book of Revelation and a nickname for every metal musician’s favorite mystic, Aleister Crowley. And it’s the very fitting title for Celtic Frost’s first real full-length album.

When Celtic Frost finished their breakthrough Morbid Tales EP in 1984, co-founders Tom Gabriel Fischer and Martin Ain immediately considered bigger aspirations. Morbid Tales let them distance themselves from Hellhammer—then very much a sore spot for the pair—and showed that two outcasts from farm villages could deliver on their promise to become a much better band. But what if Celtic Frost could take it a step further and write an album that was not only competitive with the best thrash metal coming from the United States, but also radically reimagined what was possible with heavy music? What if they incorporated classical music and vocals and wrote songs that deserved to be paired with art by famed Swiss surrealist H.R. Giger? What if their music could finally match their vision? It seemed impossible, but Fischer and Ain had already done so much with little more than their dreams.