Melt-Banana‘s last record Fetch earned a place in our top 10 of 2013. Since Kevin Stewart-Panko already asked the now duo of vocalist Yasuko “Yako” Onuki and guitarist Ichiro Agata nearly every question imaginable back in October (most importantly about their Geocities website), we weren’t left with much ground that hadn’t already been covered. Onuki…
If I commissioned a sculptor to create a monument dedicated to the hatred of mankind, it would probably be a metalhead with hair dangling in front of its eyes, carved from black onyx and brimstone, and “Entering a New State” would be blaring in a continuous loop from a speaker tucked inside the statue’s mouth….
January 19: a momentous day for America. In 1982, it gave its citizenry Jodie Sweetin, Full House’s preeminent meth fiend. In 2013, a slight upgrade: Decibel Magazine’s 100th Issue Show at Philadelphia’s Union Transfer, starring Converge, Pig Destroyer, Repulsion, Municipal Waste, Tombs, Evoken and a who’s-who of extreme music luminaries. We teamed up with director…
If memory serves me right, I have Kevin Stewart-Panko to thank for my introduction to Mouth of the Architect via his review of the band’s debut, Time and Withering, way back in one of our first issues. Since I’ve been keeping up with the Ohioans ever since, it was a no brainer to ask keyboardist/vocalist…
Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a new twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors… No fences, no borders. Free movement for all…It’s about fucking time to treat people with respect. So railed Propagandhi on the incendiary Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes track “Fuck the Border,” but as…
If you spend enough time on the Internet you begin to think that most readers visit sites just to stir the proverbial shit pot. But occasionally the Web will serve up something so delightful and unexpected that it validates the whole premise of connecting the world and equipping the population with tools to allow them…
The dudes in Anciients will release their debut album, Heart Of Oak, on Tuesday. Just in case Jeff Treppel’s lead review in our April issue or Kevin Stewart-Panko’s profile the following month weren’t enough to convince you of the Vancouver quartet’s awesomeness, guitarist/vocalists Chris Dyck and Kenny Cook passed along some of the records they’ll…
Bands like Gojira and Godflesh might be major brand names ‘round these parts, but mention them to your average Metallica-loving broseph and you’re likely to get a squinty-eyed, the-fuck-you-say? half-nod. But Decibel just won’t quit. We dig deeper, danker, darker and dirtier (though rarely fitter or happier) to turn up a few otherwise overlooked gems….
Bands like Gojira and Godflesh might be major brand names ‘round these parts, but mention them to your average Metallica-loving broseph and you’re likely to get a squinty-eyed, the-fuck-you-say? half-nod. But Decibel just won’t quit. We dig deeper, danker, darker and dirtier (though rarely fitter or happier) to turn up a few otherwise overlooked gems….
Decibel‘s NYC bureau had a tough decision to make last Thursday. Should we head on up to the west side for a classy evening amongst Lincoln Center elite to catch a special performance by This Will Destroy You? Or leave Manhattan (perish the thought!) for a night of PBRs amongst our metal brethren to get…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5no7Ym1JSA June 4th, 1996 was the day Metallica officially called it quits. While the short hair, Woodstock appearance and looming mainstream acceptance were warning signs, sitting at home and hearing “Ain’t My Bitch” for the first time solidified it: Metallica was no longer what they once were. As someone born in 1981, Metallica has sucked…
Almost every band has that album: you know, the critically and/or commercially reviled dud in an otherwise passable-to-radical back catalog. This time, Comrade Bennett accepts the editor-in-chief’s challenge to resurrect Cave In’s post-Jupiter oeuvre from beyond hypothermia.
Nothing’s more annoying than the immoral majority telling you how essential, transcendent and (huh-huh) seminal a particular extreme album is, when you know that it’s overrated as fuck. Hence, our OCCASIONAL Wednesday morning column, “Disposable Heroes,” in which one brave soul sails against the current to inform all you clones why you can’t spell classic…
Via Revelation Records comes this priceless video of Porcell of Youth of Today/Shelter/Judge fame being called a psychotic by Pat Sajack back in ’89.
There’s little more annoying on this planet than the immoral majority telling you how essential, transcendent and (huh-huh) seminal a particular extreme album is, when you know that it’s overrated as fuck. Hence, our new Wednesday morning column, “Disposable Heroes,” in which one brave soul sails against the current to inform all you clones why…
There’s little more annoying on this planet than the immoral majority telling you how essential, transcendent and (huh-huh) seminal a particular extreme album is, when you know that it’s overrated as fuck. Hence, our new Wednesday morning column, “Disposable Heroes,” in which one brave soul sails against the current to inform all you clones why…
To date, Swedish progressive metallers Evergrey haven’t had much Decibel ‘presence’. Maybe a review here, a review there over the course of our six now-infamous years on this silly planet. Will that change? Only Pontificator-in-Chief Albert Mudrian knows for certain. But that hasn’t stopped Evergrey from infiltrating the Deciblog, where, like dreams, all things are…
Almost every band has that album: you know, the critically and/or commercially reviled dud in an otherwise passable-to-radical back catalog. Well, every Wednesday morning, a Decibel staffer or special guest will take to the Deciblog to bitch and moan at length as to why everybody’s full of shit and said dud is, in fact, The…
The new and improved Deciblog is still somewhat in its infancy, so maybe we shouldn’t expect to be properly recognized by a bunch of bespectacled, quipping, big city socialists like NPR, but it’s still hard to conceal our hurt for not being included on their list of 2010’s best metal writing. Now, since there are…
Almost every band has that album: you know, the critically and/or commercially reviled dud in an otherwise passable-to-radical back catalog. Well, every Wednesday morning, a Decibel staffer or special guest will take to the Deciblog to bitch and moan at length as to why everybody’s full of shit and said dud is, in fact, The…
As the popularity of our Hall of Fame feature grows, so do the chances of us throwing a wild card at you folks.
Upon finding out the next album our vaunted Hall of Fame was going to open its pearly gates to was slated to be Judge’s Bringin’ It Down, an anticipatory buzz broke out amongst the extreme music luminaries hanging around the Decibel table at the most recent Maryland Deathfest.
When five unassuming, working-class dudes from Nassau County (Long Island, NY) released their debut full-length in 1991, it initially didn’t seem destined to have the atomic bomb of impact that it would eventually ascertain with the passage of time.
Dateline: Summer 2000. My former band has just finished our 30-minute spot on the rickety stage at New York City’s CBGB as one of eight opening acts for what is supposed to be grindcore experimentalists Discordance Axis’ last show.
News flash: Thrash metal didn’t begin or end with the release of Testament’s The Legacy, but just because the band’s 1987 debut didn’t defiantly construct genre bookends, it is still very much worthy of entry into Decibel’s hallowed hall.
While a pretty good case could be made for inducting either Rock for Light or I Against I into our esteemed Hall, the debut full-length by DC-cum-New York’s Bad Brains deserves the coveted nod; not just for its blazing punk/hardcore, but the circumstances surrounding its creation.
This one’s a no-brainer. Regardless of what you think about Calculating Infinity, you can’t deny that the 11 tracks on this album revolutionized extreme music and raised the bar in terms of technicality, musicianship, speed, dynamics–even visual presentation, album photography, and design.
Everyone remembers that one episode of The Osbournes some five years back where Ozzy’s ungrateful male sprog took it upon himself to use Meshuggah’s Destroy Erase Improve as a thrust and parry in the suburban war against his Beverly Hills neighbors.
“Hi Kevin, I’m coming down to your office now. Um… could you please make sure that noise you’re always blasting is off by the time I get there? Thanks!”
Hearken back to when you first slapped on Calculating Infinity. Recall how completely overwhelmed you were by the Dillinger Escape Plan’s virtuosity, originality, technicality and songs seemingly designed to induce vertigo.