Relapse Records

Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka is a near-perfect death metal album—absolutely pummeling and technically astonishing, yet layered with unique instrumentation and musical phrasing that give it an ancient, otherworldly atmosphere. Ranking such a slab of awesomeness from “worst to best” is about as ridiculous as Sully Erna’s face tattoo, but that’s never stopped us before!

Heavy metal has been flirting with electronic music for decades now, but the lines between the two worlds seem blurrier today than ever before. Chalk it up to Internet culture—with instant access to all the world’s information comes a vast multitude of subgenres that have enough permutations to satisfy all but the most discerning purists. Add to that the recent popularity of synth-heavy horror flicks like It Follows and numerous electronic artists signing to metal labels (Goblin Rebirth on Relapse, Gost/Dan Terminus/Perturbator on Blood Music) and it becomes pretty obvious: dark electronic/ambient music has pulled off a full-scale crossover!

Last week, we brought you an exclusive stream of Savage Land, the forthcoming debut LP from Death-worshipping supergroup Gruesome. This week, vocalist/guitarist Matt Harvey (Exhumed, Dekapitator, the “Death to All” tour) breaks down the inspiration for each song and provides some hilarious insight on what it’s like to write and record music that’s delightfully derivative.

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,…

Chicago’s Indian are presently hauling their blackhearted nihilism across the tarmac of the UK and Europe in support of the Decibel-approved From all Purity. It’s a sick record from disturbed men, maybe more noisy, more off-the-chain than anything they’ve cut to record before, and if your record collection exists primarily to harsh your mellow (which,…

**Welcome to the inaugural Deciblog Film Club, where each month we’ll poll someone from the extremely extreme community at large on a handful of films that have had an impact on their lives and their art. Think of it as an opportunity for all of us to lay down the blast beats and death growls…

Long before there was a Brewtal Truth column in Decibel or Municipal Waste was celebrating the Art of Partying or Three Floyds was making beers for its favorite metal bands, Bill Yurkiewicz and his grindcore band, Exit-13, were not only drinking amazing beers from around the world, they were writing songs about them. Yurkiewicz, who…

Well folks, it is the holiday season; what with the temperatures falling and nights closing in, and even the walls closing in, too, it’s officially the most miserable time of the year. Respite is in short supply. Hard liquor and pharmaceuticals can only do so much. But, step away from the shotgun, there’s a hefty…

Listen, we have seen Red Fang’s promo videos. We’ve witnessed their love of the grog. And at the risk of sounding guilty of cynical lifestyle profiling, surely asking Bryan Giles to compile a tour diary sounded overly optimistic. How reliable a witness could the Red Fang guitarist/vocalist be after being jammed on a van for…

“I could go on all day about Pink Floyd record covers,” says Baroness frontman/guitarist John Dyer Baizley. “I could go on all day about Neurosis record covers or Converge—Jacob Bannon is another great album cover artist.” He really could. But we’re mean and we need five to compile an easily digestible list of cover art,…

Like his bandmates in Boston death-thrash champs REVOCATION, Dan Gargiulo should have been getting ready for Summer Slaughter 2013. Y’know, there are important duties to be done before hurtling across the country in a van: like filling said vehicle full of diesel, packing a bag, loading his guitar into the van, stockpiling Cheetos and cancelling…

New week; new grind, folks. . . And this one’s a doozy, all the way from Switzerland and four years in the making. Courtesy of the good people at Relapse, we’ve got an exclusive premiere stream of Flies Will Starve from Mumakil. It is kind of ironic for a band who made their name with…

Oh praise be! The most miserable month of the year is all but over and it’s the weekend. This has been such a dry-mouthed hump of a month, but when Red Fang released their video for their super-catchy loose-minded stoner jam “Hank is Dead” the Deciblog made like Barney Gumble with the non-alcoholic champagne and…

There’s a quaint perception that grindcore is, in fact, two-dimensional. One (maybe two if you’re lucky) emotion — aggression — and the music follows accordingly. Of course, there are outliers to everything, but Ottawa, Canada-based Fuck The Facts proves that grindcore in 2011 doesn’t have to be like grindcore of 1986, 1987, or 1997. It…

Over a plate of tasty three cheese (Manchego, sharp cheddar, and Paški sir) nachos, the braniacs at Decibel thought it’d be quite rad to hear what you guys—i.e., our readership, those that think we’re peaches, those that think we’re fuckwads, etc.—concoct when you’re feeling the need to mow down on a slab of cheesy, chippy…

Track-by-track commentary by Zafrir Zori (Dukatalon) “Pai’s” [audio:https://www.decibelmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/01-Peis.mp3] A person who holds an arrogant truth, taunts, preaches, and tries proving everyone wrong ends up being the worst of them all. “Run” [audio:https://www.decibelmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/02-Run.mp3] This one deals with a state of mind where you want to run away and dwell in a secluded place, but such place…

Since we, rather Albert, wrote the book on the absolutely probable history of death metal and grindcore (available here as a shameful but necessary plugadelic), we felt there has been a dearth of grindcore and grindcore-related things on the Deciblog. We know. We’ve got Sailors With Wax Wings, Valient Thorr, Gene Simmons, and fucking Shadowgarden…