On its crazy diverse leveler of a debut EP West of Everything Lies Death Pittsburgh-based Taphos Nomos — a band which counts a mystery Decibel writer amongst its pseudonymous ranks — summons forth a mesmerizing trio of blackened death doom epics full of pummels, shreds and unforeseeable left turns.

It’s true: Shellac covers by Thou and Great Falls are precisely as fucking awesome as you’d imagine — if, you know, you actually had to use your imagination and not just click “play” below. 

Full disclosure: Roadrunner Records funded my trip to Stockholm to hear Heritage and interview frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt and team for Decibel. Fuller disclosure: I’ve been a long-time Opeth fan—OK, let’s settle for fanatic, to be frank. 

All Fours
Screamo’s not a dirty word
dB Rating: 8/10

Make what you want about Arch Enemy’s decisions since outing ex-Furbowl, ex-Carnage, ex-Hearse vocalist Johan Liiva, but they’ve never given up. 

Doom icons Pentagram are approaching their 45th year (brief hiatuses and name changes notwithstanding). 

Dark, heavy and full of heart, Missouri’s Sisters Of… set their sights on the May 12 release of their first full-length record, The Serpent, The Angel, The Adversary.  Their blend of bestial rage and contemplative yearning might just tear you open and fill you up.  Come inside and find out.

I knew from the off that Vancouver’s Witch of the Waste was going to be a band that hung out in extreme music’s left/left-centre field. How? T-shirts, brah!

German death metallers Morgoth were resurrected in 2010 after a long silence. In 2014, the group unleashed the God Is Evil 7″ to wide applause (from the death metal community, particularly in Europe). All seemed well for Morgoth’s return. 

There are not many perfect albums in heavy metal history, but Slayer’s Reign in Blood is one of them. Personally, in this writer’s opinion, when it comes to the greatest metal album of all time, it’s a toss-up between Reign in Blood, Master of Puppets, Ride the Lightning, and Paranoid. We’re dealing with an untouchable album here. Well, near untouchable, as Decibel’s Andrew Bonazelli had the brilliant idea for a new way for us to argue about our favorite metal records: why not rank the songs on each Decibel Hall of Fame inductee? Sure, why not?