death metal

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…

Dan Greening — alias Lord Worm — is one of the few true mavericks in death metal. Worm is best known for his work with Cryptopsy; Decibel Hall Of Fame inductee None So Vile and potential inductee Blasphemy Made Flesh are genre classics. Worm’s work with Cryptopsy is inimitable; his lyrics are crazed poetry as…

Hot on the shambling undead heels of the uber-sick 2013 full-length The Barrens, Denver’s masters of smart, dark n’ dirty death metal Crypticus are set to return with Chains for Devils, the second in the band’s Horror Grind Mixtape series — i.e. “an original Death Metal mini-anthology designed to confound, horrify, & delight.” This morning,…

Thanks to Acrania the world shall soon no longer need wonder what it would sound like if George Orwell served as spiritual advisor to a uber-brutal modern death metal band — these London slammers’ kinetic, oppressive, appropriately-titled debut full-length Totalitarian Dystopia will answer that question in fairly definitive fashion at the end of next month….

For your streaming pleasure this Monday we have some death metal from Rome. “Crown Of Entrails” is from Devangelic’s Comatose debut Resurrection Denied and will be released June 24. The band is touring the United States now as part of the Comatour — check all of the remaining dates following the stream. Comatour featuring Devangelic,…

Caroline Harrison is an artist who sometimes photographs for online music publications. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter. Listen to The Mother Of Virtues and learn more about Pyrrhon. Please double click on the images below to enlarge. — I’ve been the sole visual artist that Pyrrhon has worked with during the nearly six years…

Kathmandu, Nepal’s Dying Out Flame play Vedic death metal — that is, in the words of the band’s charismatic and eloquent frontman Aabeg Gautam, “Hindu themes derived from ancient Vedic philosophy/mythology and literature, incorporating ancient sanskrit shlokas, and fusing traditional Hindu classical music to brutal death metal.” Sounds pretty esoteric and spacey, right? Well, get…

Sometimes we finally get a guest we’ve wanted to host forever. We are extremely lucky today to welcome one of the forefathers of death metal to the studio: Eric Cutler of the mighty Autopsy! Eric is still shredding away — you can check out his new work on Torniquets Hacksaws & Graves. Please welcome Eric…

Melodic death metal, crust, d-beat, black metal, doom, post-metal . . . It doesn’t really matter how you label Nux Vomica because it’s pretty much impossible to adequately describe their wayfaring sound in terms of genre alone. Yeah we went for crust in this headline, but that was more of a convenient adjective, headline shorthand,…

Indianapolis’ Coffinworm are essential listening for those who like their extreme metal to open up wide and drown any extant optimism in a genre non-specific swamp of sunken riffs and black metal noise ‘n’ hiss. 2010’s debut LP When All Became None was a loose-limbed doom record that was too anxious and fidgety to plant…

Gravehill rule for a whole bunch of reasons. The Californian alpha-headbangers just have this anything goes attitude to playing gory ol’ school death metal and would just as soon mix in a little hardcore punk and crust feel as they are to bring it down slow and low and meditate upon a doom riff for…