black metal

Amalie Bruun makes her Decibel cover debut to usher in the release of the much-anticipated second Myrkur album, Mareridt, out via Relapse on September 15.

Check out this exclusive track premiere for just a taste of the unholy scourge that is Diabolical Baptism, the third album from Adelaide’s Nocturnes Mist.

It’s a good time to be a fan of black metal. This week’s label spotlight looks at a few small labels releasing black metal.

Read an interview with extremely extreme author Dean Swinford on his new book, Death Metal Epic: Book II: Goat Song Sacrifice now!

Stream the entirety of psychedelic black metal group Seventh Genocide‘s new album before it hits the streets in September.

Being a progressive band worth listening to brings two challenges. First, the band must be willing to explore and weave different styles together in a compelling way. Second and perhaps most importantly, the sound should still be tethered to some recognizable form that audiences can use to relate to the music. The music can’t just…

Get FIVE rare BONUS singles from the Decibel Flexi Series when you order this special Decibel subscription. For a limited time only!

Enjoy a full stream of Chaosborne, the new album from USBM up-and-comers Empyrean Throne now!

Listen to a new song from Zornheym (ex-Dark Funeral) now!

Unhinged blackened hardcore trio Moral Void have an explosive debut record with Deprive. Delve further into the madness.

Go behind the scenes with prolific Russian label Satanath Records.

Stream the new album from experimental doom outfit Dead Woman’s Ditch.

Stream a new track from symphonic black metal group Mist of Misery now.

Stream a new video from US/Finnish black metal band Nihilistinen Barbaarisuus.

Put your war paint on and join the crusade with Empryean Throne.

U.S. black metal heavyweights Wolves in the Throne Room are ready for the Decibel close up. Get the September issue here! 

Panopticon performed live at Decibel Metal and Beer Fest in April. Watch now!

Hear and acquire the exclusive new Myrkur flexi disc here!

Stream Sun of the Sleepless‘ new record, To The Elements, the first new music from the band since 2004, now. 

On its brilliant boundary-annihilating upcoming third full-length A Wake in Sacred Waves — out vial Sailor Records in October — Denver quartet Dreadnought delivers a deftly executed, completely entrancing sonic amalgamation that calls to mind everything from Bergtatt-era Ulver, Wolves in the Throne Room, and Kate Bush to Slint, June of ’44, Sabbath at its psychedelic doom-iest. This particular Rocky Mountain High has got the raining-fire-in-the-sky blast beats, guttural vocals, and fuzzed out nasty riffs, but also serious grooves and softer-than-a-lullabye ethereal croons, mandolin, flute, and saxophone.  

Stream a new video from secretive blackened death dealers Altarage. 

After 20 years later in the grave, Chile’s Death Yell has reformed. Not only to exact revenge on the time away from the molten metal spotlight but to issue the band’s first album, Descent into Hell. Now signed to Hells Headbangers, the Chileans are using their time wisely, focusing on reality instead of fantasy. Hell is real, and Death Yell have returned to remind us.

Shattering Light’s Creation
When black metal ruled the earth
dB rating: 8/10

Stream the challenging new release from Italian black metal group Sangue Nero. 

Stream the title track of One Master‘s Lycanthropic Burrowing. 

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.