black metal

** Twenty-two years. That’s how long Dark Funeral has been at it. It, being black metal. It, being the black metal lifestyle. It, being two EPs and six full-lengths, going back to 1994, when black metal wasn’t hip in your neck of the woods (unless it’s Olso, Bergen, or Stockholm). For the past seven years, the Swedes have been writing new album, Where Shadows Forever Reign. They’ve changed vocalists, with Emperor Magus Caligula exiting after 15 years of service to be replaced by Heljarmadr (Cursed 13). New drummer Dominator (The Wretched End) is an inspired blast machine. And bassist Natt (Angrepp) rumbles Lucifer’s great thunder. Reinforced with dark legions, Dark Funeral will take Where Shadows Forever Reign across the globe. Rise… Legions!

“Everything is permitted.” Considering that’s Norwegian experimental collective Ulver‘s genre description, hindsight confirms it’s no surprise they strayed so dramatically from the black metal that shaped their earliest albums. Following the release of their 13th LP, vocalist Kristoffer Rygg shares his thoughts on the band’s evolution and his own artistic journey.

New album, Bereft, turns all the black/death goodness up to (generating random and completely unexpected number) eleven, and we demanded an audience with Côté.  You might have read some of Côté’s thoughts in Issue #139 (May 2016, Amon Amarth cover), but now you can check out the rest of the interview and get a listen to this consistently powerful underground metal act.

Glorior Belli‘s flipped black metal’s atavistic script not once but six times since forming in 2002. Leader and intrepid boundary breaker Billy Bayou (notice it’s not stolen from Tolkien) has taken Glorior Belli into the bowels of Satan’s celestial abyss and back, with such notable releases as Manifesting the Raging Beast and The Great Southern Darkness serving as Bayou’s malign vehicle. Decibel is darkly pleased to present brand new Glorior Belli track, “Satanists Out Of Cosmic Jail”, from new album, Sundown (The Flock That Welcomes), along with a few Qs answered by Bayou from his throne atop the blackest black.

You’d be hard-pressed to describe Finland’s Moonsorrow without using some kind of synonym for “epic,” so the fact that their new LP, Jumalten Aika, out-epics anything they’ve done is nothing short of astounding. We caught up with guitarist/vocalist Mitja Harvilahti to discuss the musical, thematic and personal influences that helped bring this beast of an album to life.

Commencing with the ritualistic application of corpse paint, feature-length documentary Blackhearts shares the stories of three black metal bands from drastically different backgrounds visiting the genre’s birthplace in Norway.

“Only a handful of bands dare to leave the narrow(minded) frame which dictates what is so-called ‘true’ and what earns a negative connotation as ‘hip’. 95% of these traditionalist bands are the copycats of the copycats of the early 90ies Norwegian scene.”

Triangle by the numbers: 100+ minutes, third album, three parts, two visual artists, one video premiere. 

On this week’s Demo:listen, we drag the blade across our palms to pledge our devotion to Finland’s Blood Chalice.

Dublin-based band stabs into the murk with some of the most energized, bleak and ripping blackness we’ve heard in some time.  Hear the album, Heir to Scoria and Ash, here before its April 22 release, and learn more about the band directly in our interview with guitarist L.M.

Waldo goes talon-to-toe with the latest releases from Graves at Sea, Mantar, and Victims.

When it comes to heavy metal collectibles, it doesn’t get much bigger than Blood Music’s Emperor: The Complete Works box set. We caught up with label mastermind J to talk about the logistics of taking this monolith from concept to reality.

The Decibel Tour starts tomorrow. But you can indulge in a new Abbath video today.

Get down to earth and space out (at the same time!) with this song premiere from Woman is the Earth.

The ‘Witch is back! Jam the new Skeletonwitch track right now. 

Värähtelijä
Trance With the Devil
dB Rating: 9/10

Illness mainman Gulnar, of Poland, has advanced his dark agenda several more steps with AHP, and we got caught in the line of fire.  Classically deranged raw black metal speed meets eerie ambient speculation for one hell (you can say that again) of a journey.

Zhrine is an Icelandic black/death metal band that melds the disgusting atonality of Deathspell Omega with the oppressively frigid atmosphere of Svartidauði (guitarist Nökkvi Gylfason is a member), complete with a fetid dusting of sludge as a sickening after-dinner mint. Check out the exclusive premiere of their song “Spewing Gloom,” off their upcoming LP, Unortheta.

Abbath
Still no Vinnie Vincent guest solo
dB Rating: 8/10

Best Underground Metal Tapes of the Year , pt. II, featuring Ghûllzaraën of Necromantic Worship, hidden messages, Eli W. of Spectral Voice, unpronounceable band names, Hansel of Caligari Records, quotes from the underground and so much more! 

This year, French label Les Acteurs de L’Ombre launched Emanations, a division meant to spotlight emerging local talent with limited cassette and CD releases, and several interesting recordings have surfaced as a result.

This Decibel scribe has always fallen horned-head-over-cloven-heels for the frozen-horror lullabies crafted under the Lustre moniker.  In about three weeks, Nachtzeit will release an EP of self-proclaimed regressive black metal that strips any conceit of beauty or complexity from his other work and rages bleakly in the northern darkness.

Unfortunately, we haven’t found an inverted cross tree topper. Yet. 

Autumn Eternal
So… winter isn’t coming?
dB Rating: 9/10

Nechochwen is a West Virginia-based duo that merges black metal with Native American instrumentation, artwork and lyrical themes. We spoke to their eponymous guitarist/vocalist/songwriter about his musical process, artistic philosophy and deep ties to Native American culture.

Tapered Limbs of a Human Star
Yup, I think we found the Queen…
dB Rating: 8/10

Staying true to this breakneck creative pace, Austin Lunn is mere weeks away from dropping Panopticon’s sixth LP, the enthralling and resonant Autumn Eternal. The album is a thematic companion to his two previous LPs, but musically, it eschews the “blackened bluegrass” approach in favor of emotionally charged, mournfully melodic black metal (think Winterfylleth meets early Katatonia). We talked to Lunn about creating Autumn Eternal, taking inspiration from nature and being a musician in the often-disheartening environment of the digital age.

Two weeks ago, you had a chance to listen to Lychgate’s new album, An Antidote for the Glass Pill.  Now hear from the music’s creator about how philosophy and dystopian literature contributed to the organ-saturated black/doom album.

M
One Last Bitter Retreat
dB Rating: 8/10

Gabriele Gramaglia incorporates a love of Converge-heightened, spastic hardcore heaviness into his anguished odes to the great outdoors.  The percussion and vocal rhythms here really set Gramaglia’s solo project apart from the pack.  The music retains black metal’s otherworldly quality without losing the attention of mere mortals like us.