black metal

The UK/Serbian MRTVI describes itself as a “one-man black metal project concerned with exploring the negative dissonance and atonality of the aural and emotional spectrum,” secured the Facebook URL “/sustainedthroughdeath,” and has whittled its about section to a single Tolstoy quote: “I could not even wish to know the truth, for I guess of what it consisted. The truth was that life is meaningless” — which is a pretty steep goddamn self-created mountain of malcontent to scale. And yet “Negative Atonal Dissonance” — the long, dark sonic journey streamed exclusively below from the album of the same name out July 30 via Transcending Obscurity — manages to accomplish just that.  

Morgoth, Xysma, Destruction and more have their weakest work defended by our own Neill Jameson. 

Cormorant stream new song “Preserved in Ash.” 

Sacred cows have been slain before. They’ll be slain again. Today, we’re not butchering yet another divine bovine (not in total, we’d be nuts and in poor taste), but rather turning the tables on last week’s Bathory post, where we unsheath our Bathory collection (from 1984’s Bathory to 1988’s Blood Fire Death) listening for Quorthon’s sonic hell-born warts.

Goatwhore frontman Ben Falgoust on new album Vengeful Ascension. 

Watch the new video from Australian black metal band Somnium Nox.

White Halo — the seven-years-in-the-making third full-length from Tokyo quintet Heaven in Her Arms — is a fierce and lush amalgamation of post-metal atmospherics, classic screamo, black metal, prog rock, and trad metal sure to trigger metalgaze haters even as it subverts and expands the boundaries of that sub-subgenre. 

Stream a new track from the German black metal band.

Explore one of Greece’s more extreme labels, Celtic Fog Productions.

Stream “Renewal,” the closing track on Wildspeaker‘s second album, Spreading Adder. 

Lists polarize. There, we said it. We’re click-baiting just like the big guns. Other websites lede (yes, lede) with must-click, must-share titles like: “Killswitch Engage Caught On Tape Stealing Soilwork Roadmap” or “Burzum’s Varg Launches Role-Playing Game” (well, that actually happened) or “Ozzy’s Six-Decade Sex Addiction — All The Sordid Details Inside!” Here at Decibel, we care enough to bait you with things like The Top 5 Bathory Songs… After Twilight of the Gods.

Intriguing and insightful reading for black metal enthusiasts.

Venom Inc., the new band featuring founding Venom members Jeff “Mantas” Dunn and Anthony “Abaddon” Bray along with former Venom bassist/vocalist Tony Dolan, are the latest addition to the Decibel Flexi Series.

Melodic black/death powerhouse SinnerAngel share a new single.

There’s some great black metal album art. And there is some not-so-great black metal album art. Krieg‘s Neill Jameson focuses on the latter in the second part of this series.

Watch Withered‘s performance from Decibel Metal and Beer Fest.

Not all black metal cover art is terrible. But a lot of it is. And Krieg’s Neill Jameson has uncovered the worst of the worst. 

There’s only one Duplicate Records.

The last time we talked to Farsot, bassist/keyboardist v.03/170 was fielding our inquiries into the band’s inner workings. The Germans had just released their second album, 2011’s stupendous Insects, and we here at Decibel were obsessed with what made the landmark effort tick. Now, seven years later, we inquire about album of the year contender (my opinion, natch) in Fail-Lure.

Interview tips from our resident birdbrains, plus pecking on Cemetery Urn, Tombs and Dying Fetus. 

Watch Falls of Rauros at Decibel Metal and Beer Fest.

“I do not know if we can talk about concept because it really reflects our life concretely,” says Khaos-Dei vocalist Nacht. “Catechism is the natural evolution of our first album.

Stream new track “The Observer” from blackened thrash force Wilderness Dream. 

Look up the word ‘kafirun’. In Arabic, it translates to ‘unbeliever’ or ‘atheist’, but Canada’s most violent black metallers Kafirun aren’t addressing Islam or its treatment of Al-Kafirun on debut album, Eschaton.

Order a deluxe Decibel subscription by Monday, June 5, and get this limited edition Venom Inc. vinyl featuring an exclusive recording!

Stream a new song from French death dealers Bliss of Flesh. 

Enter the Alien World by streaming the new Below the Sun album.

For Greece-based Acherontas, it would seem as if black metal, as a genre, is secondary to the devotional aspects of what drives, inspires, and fulfills their physical and incorporeal beings.

“This is something you can’t really control, you must draw, draw and draw again.”

From “As Above” to “So Below,” Wormwitch deliver a powerful debut album.