death metal

Entombed’s dual 25th anniversary Clandestine concerts could be coming to a small screen near you. 

Very little is funny about Aum and their heady/dirty death offensive, Om Ah Hum Vajra Guru Padma Siddhi Hum, but get your ears on this if you like dense, ugly destruction that also finds time to paint with a little light.

Temple of Phobos
Cower power
dB rating: 8/10

We catch up with Demo:listen alums Tomb Mold to talk their killer new EP, their highly anticipated forthcoming LP, and what it means to shed some skin.

Cognitive was formed with two ideas in mind: heaviness and intense technicality. On the first taste of their Unique Leader debut, they prove those ideas are still at the forefront of the band. 

Italy’s Hierophant unleash a palpable burst of anger on “Forever Crucified” as they prepare to release Mass Grave. 

There are many reasons why Dying Fetus’ Destroy the Opposition rules, but one in particular stands (severed) head and shoulders above them all: the riffs. Slick, catchy and heavy as fuck, this is death metal that was written to be remembered. 

Gatecreeper‘s latest single is yet another reason to keep the death metal newcomers in mind. Listen to “Stronghold” now. 

Cambridge, MA tattoo shop/art gallery Eridanos hosts Dan Seagrave’s mind-bending swarm of winged creations.

Rather than reinvent the wheel, Altered Dead construct a twelve-spoke rolling thing out of rotting corpses. And they do so with such skill and aplomb that they make crafting exemplary death metal look easy. 

Whether we’re talking his innovative, grotesque artwork for seminal bands like Morbid Angel, Suffocation, Autopsy, and Dying Fetus or the uber-brutal death metal he’s summoned from the grave for decades via outfits such as Excrescent, Unburied, The Soil Bleeds Black, Grave Wax, and Macabra, it’s difficult to imagine a more legit motherfucker in the extreme music underground than Mark Riddick. And anyone who doubts this is going to have their hands full in a couple months attempting to wrestle with Epicedia, the gnarly, epic, forward-thinking-yet-utterly-feral masterpiece from Riddick’s solo project Fetid Zombie. 

Get to know the crusty Spaniards of Cruz. 

The Grey Eminence just might be the best thing frontman Steve Tucker (Morbid Angel) has ever recorded. Hear Warfather‘s sophomore LP in full now. 

In which we strive to demystify one of the year’s sickest works of death metal with those who dealt it.

Was Morbid Angel’s minor change in direction in 1995 just “too extreme” for old-school death metallers to accept? Our Neill Jameson defends Domination’s place in metal history.

French soul-threateners Aum will release their highly destructive (and equally esoteric) force, debut record Om Ah Hum Vajra Guru Padma Siddhi Hum, this Friday on Iron Bonehead.  We asked the band some questions, and we got some enthusiastic and thoughtful responses.  Read up on Aum’s focus and vision right here.

Dutch blackened doom-death amalgamators Swampcult have written a concept album around H.P. Lovecraft’s story “The Festival” and the thing somehow manages to aurally channel the dread and terror of its inspiration. Today Decibel haunts your imagination with this exclusive stream of “Chapter VI – The Procession” as well as one of the corresponding “story cards” designed to accompany it.

We’ve got an exclusive stream of the first song from Beasts of Faith, the long-awaited debut album by Zürich’s Deathcult.

Lord have Mercyless! Hear the French cult thrashers new album before its October release.   

Fatalist isn’t just back from the grave — they blew up the whole goddamn field on their way out the cemetery gates. Decibel is honored to present an exclusive stream of a insanely blistering track from the Ventura, California death-grinders mind-blowing upcoming album The Bitter End, out 9/23 via FDA Rekotz. (Preorder packages here.)  

The Slithering Bog is a suffocating death/doom album that will trip you out as it crushes you.

Auroch show no signs of slowing down on the first single from their upcoming third album. 

Autopsy madman Chris Reifert’s Violation Wound project has our vote. 

Two nerds enter. Two nerds leave. Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal & Grindcore author Albert Mudrian and Black Metal: The Cult Never Dies Vol 1. author Dayal Patterson talk creative process, Lords of Chaos, Swedish Death Metal and more. 

Unless you’ve got a sensory deprivation chamber, Voidspawn’s debut EP Pyrrhic is the closest you’ll get to the dark interstices between the dimensions.

Terence Hannum of Locrian talked to Decibel about his new novella Beneath The Remains.

The Curling Flame of Blasphemy
Beats the Hockey Flame of Blasphemy
dB rating: 8/10

Are the noble intensions of an old-school punk really helping anyone? 

Belgian death-grind outfit Aborted just celebrated their 20th Anniversary. Well, last year they did. But think of it. 20 years of death, grind, and chopping up listeners into little sanguine bits. The group’s new album, Retrogore, isn’t too far removed from its predecessors, but where it stands on its own, is in the songwriting.

Dungeon Bastards
10-Sided DIEDIEKILLKILL
dB rating: 8/10