black metal

Transcontinental duo Montfaucon tempers death-doom with elements of progressive, black and symphonic metal, creating an amalgamation of heaviness and melody. 

“Serpent Sun” comes off Nightbringer’s upcoming Terra Damanata.

The last time Fides Inversa released a full-length (2014’s Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinans) Ebola was making its way across West Africa, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared off the Gulf of Thailand, ISIL begins its terror campaign across northern Iraq, and Pope Paul VI is beatified by the Roman Catholic Church.

Appalling Ascension
Dark matters
dB rating: 8/10

“The theme of ‘Baklengs mot Intet’ describes the inner battle, the bottomless despair and endless futility experienced by a walker of the Way.”

Hear a brand new Panopticon track recorded especially for the Decibel Flexi Series. 

Drudkh main man gets back to black metal basics with new project Windswept. Hear the first new track here. 

Bethlehem
To live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning
dB rating: 9/10

One writer picks five favorite Decibel web articles of 2016.

Ulcerate, Whores, Gatecreeper, Full of Hell/Nails, Gendo Ikari and everything else Waldo pecked on in 2016. 

When you need a break after hearing “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” or “Jingle Bell Rock” ten thousand agonizing times.

War is hell, and hell sounds better than ever on Dead War’s The Triumph of Death.

Just in time for the holiday season, we bring you this exclusive full album stream of Veneration of Armageddon, the sophomore record from Germany’s Goatblood.

Black metal favorites Panopticon record a crushing, nearly seven-minute epic for the Decibel Flexi Series. If you want one, you’ll need a deluxe Decibel subscription by December 20. 

Before you put 2016 to rest, here’s one last black metal victory to serve as an elegy.

Wiegedood traded atmosphere for aggression on “Smeekbede,” the first single from the band’s second album.

Our resident bird brains pecks on some new black metal.

We revisit Immortal’s transition stage between two regions of Blashyrkh.

Do you like Deathspell Omega? Of course you like Deathspell Omega! Everyone likes Deathspell Omega! But Deathspell Omega can’t always write and record Deathspell Omega EPs and albums. Good thing we’ve got Dodecahedron!

Ritual & Revival deliver extreme jams. THESE ARE LITERALLY EXTREME JAMS.

Exalt, for the wait to hear the new Panzerfaust album is over. Today we bring you the exclusive premiere of The Lucifer Principle, the fourth album from these Canadians in Satan’s Service. Warning: This material may be hazardous to your soul.

A journey back to 1992, where cold winds blow.

The Athenian quartet Ravencult‘s third LP cleans and polishes its blackened death thrash without blunting its serrated decimation. Axe demon Stefanos Fakatselis fielded our email.

Recently the band has embarked on a Transylvanian trilogy, meant to explore the various elements of deep traditional life in the band’s homeland.  We asked main man Negru a few questions about the current state of the band and their direction.

Good goddamn is HÄXAN some dark, disquieting, creepy, heavy, seriously avant garde, Hellraiser-esque torment-is-delight nastiness! Composed to serve as a soundtrack for Benjamin Christensen’s 1922 witchcraft n’ Satan heavy silent film of the same title, the latest from EORÐESLAJYR — that’s “earth slayer,” if you dare call their name — has got a Scorn by way of Swans by way of circa Too Dark Park Skinny Puppy vibe and its textures and left turns will fuck with your head.

To celebrate the album’s release — pick up your copy here — we asked the to delve into a few specific moments of inspiration drawn from the film that went on to possess the music…

Nidingr say they were going for a simplified, yet equally as intense sound this time around. 

Black Hole Generator get fast and evil on “Moloch.” 

Czech Republic’s most active, adventurous, and influential band, Root, are almost in their third decade. Formed in 1987, when their country and the world was in a different place, Root nevertheless managed to emanate outward from their industrial home of Brno.

At the onset of metal’s second decade, kult was not a choice. Kult was the by-product of poverty, desperation and isolation.

On this week’s Demo:listen, we make contact with a singular entity, something from Canada unlike aught we’ve ever known before, a thing which calls itself Sorguinazia.