death metal

Apotheosynthesis is an atmospheric tech death monstrosity that batters ears and uplifts the soul… or is it the other way ’round?

Dark Abstraction
They can see clearly now
dB Rating: 8/10

 Chris Jericho is one of the most decorated professional wrestlers ever: a six-time world champion and the first-ever undisputed WWE champion. He is also one of the most vocal celebrity metal fans on the planet as well as a metal musician who has toured the world repeatedly with his band Fozzy. Jericho’s latest project, however, might be the only one that could earn the extreme moniker.

In the latest issue, Autopsy joins our revered two-time Hall Of Fame Club, which includes metal stalwarts like Celtic Frost, Carcass and At The Gates. To commemorate the Severed Survival HOF we’re printing our exclusive “Illustrated History” of Autopsy with Eric Cutler and Chris Reifert from late 2013.  

Infernus
Infernal Affairs
dB Rating: 8/10

In New York’s flourishing metal scene the experimental death metal band Pyrrhon is a bit of an outlier. Formed when most of the band members were in college, Pyrrhon received widespread acclaim for their 2014 album The Mother Of Virtues, a blend of lyrical and instrumental virtuosity. Pyrrhon is fronted by Doug Moore, a onetime high school athlete and University Of Pennsylvania graduate who rejected conventional paths to success to pursue music. He talked to us about cross-state commutes to band practice and the end times.  

Upon hearing that Deicide’s sixth album In Torment In Hell was a potential selection for Justify Your Shitty Taste, our Editor-in-Chief responded with a simple: “Oooh, that’s bad.” No other words were uttered. But is it really?

Pyrrhon caught our attention last year with their excellent album The Mother Of Virtues, which combined technical yet chaotic death metal with frontman Doug Moore’s staccato prose poems. A lot has happened in the ensuing year. The album made many year-end lists but the band split from Relapse and has since teamed with David Hall and Handshake for a new EP.

Undead are so mysterious they aren’t even mentioned on the cover of Decibel’s July 2015 issue. Yet, they do, in fact, appear in said issue under the noms de guerre Necros and King Oscuro. See, nobody knows much about Undead. Even the label’s publicist put up his respective hands as to the band’s origins. Well, if anything is known about Undead it’s that they like Death. A lot. Pre-progged out Death. The group’s new album, False Prophecies, recalls 1988 perfectly. But it’s more than that. There’s aspects of Possessed, Master, and Obituary. Our blood bleeds old-school death (and Death). Yours should after Undead gets its fangs into you.

Coffins is a long-time dB favorite and we’re happy to bring you four tracks from the new collection Perpetual Penance. 

Make what you want about Arch Enemy’s decisions since outing ex-Furbowl, ex-Carnage, ex-Hearse vocalist Johan Liiva, but they’ve never given up. 

German death metallers Morgoth were resurrected in 2010 after a long silence. In 2014, the group unleashed the God Is Evil 7″ to wide applause (from the death metal community, particularly in Europe). All seemed well for Morgoth’s return. 

Delaware is known as the First State, the Diamond State, or the Blue Hen State. Not sure what any of those things mean–except for First State–in the grand context of things, but it should now be known as the Death Metal State. And upstart death metallers Scorched are leading the charge.

Last week we featured “Bastards Burn” from the new Psychomancer EP Inject the Worms. If one song wasn’t enough for you, good-guy record label Orchestrated Misery is giving away FIVE copies of this bludgeoning EP. Email us at [email protected] with just what exactly you think a Pyschomancer is, and we’ll pick five lucky metalheads to…

Metal has seen its fair share of worship bands over the years (see Black Sabbath’s direct line to every doom band ever), but it’s rare that one comes along whose sole purpose is to pay homage to one specific group and their highly specific style. Enter Gruesome, a bonafide supergroup (members of Exhumed, Malevolent Creation,…

It’s Wednesday, possibly the second shittiest day of the week. Do you feel like some death metal? Of course you do. For your streaming pleasure today we have “Bastards Burn” from Psychomancer’s new EP Inject The Worms, released yesterday by Orchestrated Misery. This is good stuff if bands like Jungle Rot and early Malevolent Creation…

Poland’s Infernal War has been relatively quiet for the better part of a decade. The band is about to release their new full-length album Axiom via Agonia Records. Here’s their take: “Axiom is the essence of Infernal War. At the same time, it’s not a copy of our previous works. The new material is more…

Heaving Earth takes their name from a Morbid Angel song (on the underrated Formulas Fatal To The Flesh). They are from the Czech Republic, where we think some of scenes of Hostel or at least one misanthropic slasher film was set. And they have a new album out on Lavadome called Denouncing The Holy Throne….

“Mysterious,” indeed.  When we heard the sonic sickness belched from Spanish sepsis-spewers Hic Iacet, we dimmed the lights and began casting about for something filthy to rub all over ourselves.  And we sought out an interview with the progenitors of these gruesome chords and vokills.  We were rebuffed, our request to gain access to the…

Next week Unique Leader is set to reissue Psychogenocide — the 2011 sophomore LP from uber-brutal Dubai-based death metallers Nervecell — and to get both our visual and aural learners hyped for it Decibel has got the exclusive premiere of the band’s video for “Amok Doctrine” below. Preorder Psychogenocide here.

If any album boasting song titles like “Genital Tumor,” “Alcoholic Mosh,” and “Obscene Symphony” can be reasonably compared to a precious stone then, sure, Brazilian proto-blackened death metallers Sextrash’s raw, deliciously-nutty-meets-brutal-as-fuck 1990 full-length debut Sexual Carnage is one helluva singular hidden heavy metal gem. Put another way, when the band’s label calls the record —…

Broken Hope’s Jeremy Wagner sat down with us beginning last week for his four-part shredder’s studio. Here is the second installment from the death metal veteran turned author. We’ll be running the final two takes at a time to be revealed in 2015. — Savatage: Sirens (title track) (1983) The guitar work of Criss Oliva…

When you invite a a published novelist to the shredder’s studio expect a narrative. Such was the case with death metal veteran and Broken Hope founder Jeremy Wagner. Not only did Mr. Wagner visit the shredder’s studio — he provided your host with a near novella on the riffs that shaped him in chronological order….

Publicist guy says: “We think you’ll like this — it sounds like Coffins.” So, we decide to check it out because we love Coffins. And yes, we can hear that a bit but we hear even more similarities to Mitochondrian and Decibel favorites Incantation. These are promising comparisons for extreme metal. Despite throwing out a…

Ah, December — the time of the year when everyone puts out their “best of” lists and thinks about albums that will come out in summer 2015. We’re just as guilty at Decibel; our annual top 40 extravaganza is probably on your nightstand. This would lead you to think that no new music comes out…

If you don’t dig deep into the demos reviewed in our print edition you will miss many gems. Case in point: Boddicker‘s nasty little album Crime Upheaval, which reminded us of classics like World Downfall and Misery Index with Brujeria theatrics. Boddicker is actually the name of the villian in the original Robocop so there’s…

Internal Bleeding recently finished a 30-date North American tour. Guitarist Chris Pervelis shared this funny roundup from his time on the road. You can connect with the band on Facebook and get their new album Imperium from Unique Leader. — Thirty shows — across both America and Canada. That’s quite a test of human endurance…

No, this is not that dude who was in Marilyn Manson for about the length of a football season (that’s Zim Zum). This is ZOM and they come from Ireland bearing blackened death metal. Actually, they list their hometown as ANTI MATTER UNIVERSE on Facebook which sort of has the same ring as “From Parts…

Florida and death metal are practically synonymous. Most of that has to do with the legendary albums cranked out of Morrisound in the 90s by Obituary, Death, Cannibal Corpse and other luminaries. But don’t forget Miami, which is the home of Decibel favorite grinders Maruta and birthed Hall Of Fame inductees Cynic. Let’s showcase a…

It might not be “pungent” stench but plain Stench will do just fine, too. Decibel backed the initial offering from this Swedish death metal trio and we’re streaming their second album Venture, available October 7 in the United States. Venture is the follow up to the debut In Putrescence, but it’s been about four years…