Doom Metal

The Night Creeper
The Dark Night Rises
dB Rating: 8/10

A Dracula
The prequel to I, Frankenstein and Eee, Wolfman!
dB Rating: 8/10

Melk En Honing
Drinking and driven
dB Rating: 8/10

Lucifer I
New partner, same dance, better result
dB Rating: 9/10

Luminiferous
Blinded by the Light
dB Rating: 9/10

The Plague Within
A dark and darkening journey
dB Rating: 9/10

“I fucking hate metal band performance videos,” says Paradise Lost guitarist Greg Mackintosh (also of Vallenfyre), “so when I got told that we needed to do one I was obviously annoyed but then came the idea to do a performance video of utter misery. The slowest song we have ever recorded.

Wayfarer’s gorgeous, lush eight track ode to epic heaviness Children of the Iron Age isn’t out until next week, but Decibel readers can check out the whole damn thing right now via the full album stream below. Pre-order the CD or Gatefold 2XLP here or hit up iTunes, Amazon, or Bandcamp. Keep up with the…

Brooklyn doom metallers Kings Destroy recently hit the road with Pentagram. Here, in their own words, is what transpired… Chicago, IL (Stephen Murphy, vocals) Well goddamn, it was great to head to Chicago for the first show of the tour with Pentagram, Radio Moscow and Bang, plus Iron Reagan taking the stage before us. We…

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…

This is our fourth post from director Aaron Beaucher on the making of the new A Pale Horse Named Death video “DMSLT.” An updated gallery follows. — During the past few weeks, we’ve been working on integrating the effect shots into the video. The process can be cumbersome. The first step was to import our…

Shredding in metal dates directly back to Tony Iommi, who is inexplicably still writing riffs and will be a big part of the new Black Sabbath album due next month. So, we figured it was a good time to invite a new generation of doom shredder into the studio this week. Mark Thomas Baker of…

According to their Facebook page, UK doom/Heavy Metal quartet Arkham Witch‘s personal interests include, “Ales, Histories, Wars, Invocations and Audible assaults. Drinking as fuck!” And their description of their sound is pretty much bang on too. “Old School Heavy Metal/Doom infused with Lovecraftian horror, tales of mighty Barbarians and festering evil superstitions!” What’s not to…

It’s funny, the press releases that accompany doom records are unlike any of your typical puff-sheets, the purpose of which, of course, is to sell you on the record. No, the doom press release always comes with the caveats abound, stressing the oppressive track lengths, moribund subject matter, and advising helpfully that “it’s not for…

Courtesy of the good people of Horror Pain Gore Death Productions, the Deciblog is honored to roll up with this exclusive album stream of Floridian doom quartet DRUID LORD‘s debut LP, Hymns for the Wicked. Hymns originally dropped on Hallowe’en, 2010, sold out on CD and vinyl, and is now up for reissue tomorrow (February…

Welcome to Blues Into Metal, an occasional Decibel interview and blog series on the history and ties between America’s homegrown music and the extreme fare our readers cherish. In it, we’ll seek out musicians from both genres to discuss the links and shared history between the blues and metal – and the misconceptions about both….

Venomous Maximus isn’t a cover band that does a cool version of “Witching Hour.” This Houston band likes riffs, penned a song that’s an indirect ode to King Diamond (see below) and has earned comparisons to Pentagram and Electric Wizard. We’ll gladly take that over a Cronos impersonation. For your exclusive streaming pleasure, Venomous Maximus…

When we interviewed metal iconoclast Vanessa Nocera back in August for the Women in Metal issue she cited the “poetic atmosphere” of surrealist horror films as an prime influence, so we are extremely pleased and honored the Wooden Stake frontwoman has graciously agreed to help us kick off our Halloween month coverage with a truly…

Pentagram frontman Bobby Liebling has received much deserved attention for his comeback from a harrowing addiction and the revival of his musical career, not to mention late in life fatherhood. A few of his former bandmates might not have dealt with the same demons but they’ve had their share of tough times seeing their musical…

Yeah, it seems kind of corny to talk of a “dream team” existing in doom’s dark, colorless realm but, shit, just consider Serpentine Path’s personnel. You’ve got Tim Bagshaw, guitarist for saturnine UK doom crew Ramesses and a founding member of Electric Wizard, jamming with entire crew of the now (sadly) defunct Unearthly Trance, Jay…

English N.W.O.B.H.M./doom elders Pagan Altar will release remastered EP The Time Lord through Shadow Kingdom Records on 11 September 2012. Having previously only available limited vinyl runs, The Time Lord has hitherto harder to find than a taxi on New Year’s Eve, a pint of unicorn milk, etc… This is the first time it has…

Witchsorrow’s sophomore album will be ripe for picking come the end of May. This is exciting news for doom heads. But what’s that you say, the timing could be better? The British trio’s Sabbath/Vitus morbido-doom doesn’t really make for a summer record, right? Those who think that crestfallen pessimism and slo-mo riff ‘n’ dirge was…

Sure, doom is a solitary magpie affair that doesn’t ordinarily deal in good news stories. But c’mon, even the joyless industry beancounters will be left catatonic with optimism after Electric Wizard‘s first magic trick of the night: filling a theatre. It’s the measure of doom metal’s stock that it can pack the heathens cheek by…

The last time we saw photographic evidence of what Hickory, NC doom troupe Hour of 13 get up to when taking care of official band business—heavy metal, viz. doom in the vein of St.Vitus et al—they were hanging out in a forest with a naked girl squatting in the foreground. Since then they’ve went off-radar….

OK, when Albert, Scott K., and myself think doom metal we automatically throw horns, put on our ankle length leather jackets, and head out to the moors for an “atmospheric” photo shoot. Actually, we don’t have moors here in Pennsylvania, but a trip to Centralia, PA always sets the right “mood”. Anyway, there’s been far…