interview

Kevin Hufnagel is traveling around the country right now blowing minds with Gorguts on the Decibel tour. We thought it was a perfect time to pull him aside and learn about the riffs that shaped his shredding style. Please welcome Kevin Hufnagel to the Inside The Shredder’s Studio. — Here it is: a list of…

Shitfucker caught our attention with their 2013 Hells Headbanger’s release Suck Cocks in Hell, which received an “8” in the pages of our print sibling. The record contains some of the most infectious, rocking songs that have crept from the underground in a dog’s age. Shitfucker took it up another notch with the wonderfully low-fi…

The hard road of Pentagram frontman Bobby Liebling, who has fought the real demons of addiction for decades, was well chronicled in the documentary Last Days Here as well as J. Bennett’s May 2011 cover story. While the film had a happy ending everyone knows that after the credits roll life continues. Hollywood doesn’t like…

Few people have a professional circle that includes Chris Barnes and Alex Webster, sexy pop starlet Terri Nunn and global film star Jim Carrey. One of them is Decibel Hall Of Fame inductee Paul Masvidal (enshrined with his Cynic bandmates for Focus). When Cynic fell apart in the mid-90s, Masvidal relocated to Los Angeles, where…

Stick around long enough and you might get the things you always wanted. For some kids that’s a medical degree or a wedding fit for Disney. What I wanted was to hang out with Tesco Vee, the imposing frontman of The Meatmen who made me laugh on a daily basis with juvenile sexual ripostes on…

It’s been more than 22 years since the UK hardcore act Satanic Malfunctions has released any music (Disgrace To Humanity, 1990). Decibel is proud to present a full album stream of the comeback Them, released by Selfmadegod and available for purchase here. After the stream check a quick q and a with drummer Ade. It’s…

Metal has always been a global phenomenon. However, one of the communities we don’t hear too much about outside of some fine work by filmmaker Sam Dunn is India. Decibel wanted to get a closer look at what’s going on in India and how globalization and cultural shifts are shaping metal music there. We had…

In recent years, Chicago has been home to all sorts of experimental and off-the-path metal. Lest you forget it’s also the hometown of Paul Speckmann of Master, scads of restaurants that serve large racks of meat and tons of old-school goodness. On that note, Decibel is happy to provide an exclusive stream of Scythe’s “Leather…

Jack Grisham’s place in the world of punk and extreme music is secure. In the early 80s, he was the volatile frontman of T.S.O.L. (True Sounds Of Liberty), a band that along with Black Flag and the Circle Jerks defined southern California hardcore. He handled vocals on their debut EP and the eternal classic Dance…

Guitarist and vocalist Joe Wood is best known for his time in T.S.O.L., including the classic Change Today? album – a hybrid of punk and blues that I consider one of the best Southern California punk albums in the early-to-mid 80s. The album’s highlight is “Flowers By The Door,” a near-perfect song that is still…

We remember the folks who were around when we started listening to metal. One of the people I have a vivid memory of is my old friend Robert Dyer: a wild haired guitar aficionado that sat next to me in many a math class during our four years at a parochial prep school. Robert often…

Jaz Coleman is known for tackling big subjects in interviews: climate change; the degradation of the food supply; technological singularity and the Renaissance. Spending some time with him in person — not in a Conga line of press interviews — is a much different proposition, even if he still hints at his scholarly pursuits. Decibel…

So, this is pretty cool. Decibel has teamed with Scion A/V to offer our fine blog readers the first peek at a new interview and performance video featuring sci-fi metallers Vektor. The footage was shot during the recent Scion A/V Earache Records showcase. Per what you’d expect from Scion A/V the video is immaculately shot…

You might remember our friends from specialty vinyl label Last Hurrah. Last year, they pressed an ultra limited vinyl run of 16’s Lost Tracts Of Time. This summer, they will release a full length album from Mike IX project The Guilt Of… Although this will only be released on vinyl Decibel scored an early peak…

If you spend enough time on the Internet you begin to think that most readers visit sites just to stir the proverbial shit pot. But occasionally the Web will serve up something so delightful and unexpected that it validates the whole premise of connecting the world and equipping the population with tools to allow them…

For three decades, Jim Van Bebber has been one of the most abrasive, iconoclastic filmmakers in the American underground. His debut feature Deadbeat At Dawn was a perfect rendition of 60s biker films shot guerilla style on the streets of his hometown of Dayton, Ohio. His mini-feature My Sweet Satan is an updated retelling of…

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….

Clamfight has a much better ring to it than, say, Mollusk Warfare (and we already have Insect Warfare). We’d quickly exhaust our nautical jokes in a sentence or two so we’ll leave it at the headline. Here’s the scoop: for your listening pleasure below is Clamfight’s new album I Versus The Glacier. This writer digs…

The phrases “Van Drunen” and “side project” will cause more than a little excitement in these parts. The death metal frontman handled vocals on two prestigious entries in Decibel’s Top 100 Death Metal Albums (available here). He also toured with the mighty Bolt Thrower and fronts war-themed badasses Hail Of Bullets. The dude is like…

Tankard were living the Brewtal Truth life, long before we ever had our first sip of beer.

Mike Scheidt, the Black Mastermind behind YOB, gives mass and weight to sound waves. And I’m pretty sure that defies one or two of the laws of physics, which means that he’s doing something supernatural. Which makes sense, because I’ve always considered YOB to be a sort of spiritual, transcendental experience. Not that I believe…

A few months back I spoke to Josh Homme about the reissue of Queens of the Stone Age’s eponymous debut album, and, like all alpha-dudes from bands of a certain size, phone time was strictly rationed to 30 minutes and no longer. But he’s nothing if not a rule-breaker and talked way longer. That first…