Metal

Greetings, Decibel readers! It’s an exciting day for metalheads, as two black metal luminaries return with the latest from Sear Bliss (I hope you like brass instruments) and Limbonic Art (I hope you like synths) — and we’ve got the latest from the tailor-made-for-Decibel-coverage outfit in 200 Stab Wounds. Enjoy! — Amarok – Resilience Slow. Crushing. Devastating. Sludgy death-doom

New England master blasters Escuela Grind will melt faces with a new full-length LP on MNRK Heavy this fall, but since your face can’t wait until then, so we’re bringing you a brand new track courtesy of the Decibel Flexi Series! Exclusive track “Distant Disruptor” delivers 75 blistering seconds of rabid deathgrind and will not be

Boston punks Miracle Blood have garnered a reputation over the last decade for their electric live performances and it’s easy to hear why on their new single, “Phenomenon.” The two-minute track gets in and out quicky, the band making no time in making their point by mixing their melodic punk core with some mathy instrumental performances. By

Drift Into Black Following its 2022 release, Earthtorn, New Jersey-based doom metal project Drift Into Black returns with its fifth full-length album, Voices Beneath the Rubble. What started as a solo project by Craig Rossi (ex-Grey Skies Fallen) has now become a full-fledged band. With the addition of bassist/guitarist Paul LaPlaca and drummer Klemen Markelj,

Photo by Bailey Olinger “Full transparency: I don’t game anymore, I don’t do any of that shit.” That was at the top of our discussion with 200 Stab Wounds guitarist and vocalist Steve Buhl during our interview for Decibel’s, uh, video game column. The Cleveland-born quartet has been on a tear these last three years

Technical death metal crushers Cognitive are back with a new release, Abhorrence, their debut for Metal Blade Records. This is their fifth album and the follow-up to 2021’s breakthrough, Malevolent Thoughts of a Hastened Extinction. The New Jersey band are known for their progressive songwriting, and this new record is no exception. We talked with guitarist

Where they from?Halen, Belgium. Holy shit, how about those Oilers? They gave it a ride in the Stanley Cup final against Edmonton and fought their way back from being down 3-0 to tie the series tied at three games a piece. But nothing good happens in Florida, so they, of course fell last night by

Photo by Adam Bubolz Nick Sakes never met a chord he couldn’t make uglier and/or better. Starting out as the guitarist/vocalist of deeply impactful Decibel Hall of Fame inductees The Dazzling Killmen, Sakes refined and expanded his sound with bands like Colossamite and Sicbay. Now the Minnesotan is back with new trio Upright Forms. Set

It’s been a long time since Richmond’s X-Cops released new music—28 years, to be specific—but the humorous crossover cops are back and ready to face an internal investigation on their new EP, XCAB. The five songs contained within have a decidedly rock ‘n’ roll feel to them and according to lead vocalist Sheriff “Tubb” Tucker, they’ve never had

Photo: Gobhinder Jhitta When he isn’t busy with Napalm Death, extreme music legend Shane Embury keeps himself busy with other projects—Brujeria, Lock Up, Venomous Concept and his electronic music project, Dark Sky Burial. Having released four full-lengths and a couple of EPs since 2020, Dark Sky Burial has become an increasingly experimental project, a tendency that

Where they from?Oslo, Norway. Rather than talk about sports like I usually do in this section I just want to take a moment to share this band’s Bandcamp bio: “Beaten To Death was created in 2010 by blah, blah, blah, released five albums and a blah, blah, blah great reviews that blah, blah, blah melodic

The word “paragnosis” pertains to knowledge or wisdom granted by a higher power, and in the eyes and ears of the band by the same word, music is the greatest expression of that power. Paragnosis is an instrumental group from New York City whose influences and abilities span the gamut of musical experience. Therefore, Decibel

Italian death merchants and sinister cinephiles Fulci score the ultimate slasher with Duck Face Killings, their latest aural offering to the godfather-of-gore (and homage to his 1982 banned-on-release bloodbath The New York Ripper) and Decibel has carved up an exclusive edition on Fun Dip Marble colored vinyl, limited to just 100 copies! Emblazoned by abominable

Dripping Decay Metal’s history is always written on the ground floor. Academics only got into the mix in the 21st century. The best documentation comes from those who were there. Brian Lew and Harald Oimoen were there for the formative years of thrash; their collected work Murder In The Front Row still does brisk business

Greetings, Decibel readers! Although I cringe at any therapeutic language applied to art, I cannot deny metal’s powers to provide escape, catharsis, and release. Some of us could really use that right now. And luckily we have some true masters to take us away this weekend. Enjoy. — Alcest – Les Chants De Laurore The high kings

Old-school deathrashers Assimilator are preparing to drop a new release via Horror Pain Gore Death, the EP titled Expelled into Suffering.  This EP is a an ode to all things classic and a return to their death metal roots with a little newschool, hardcore-tinged flair mixed in for good measure. According to their press release, “The

Need a dose of brutality? North Dakotan death dealers Gorgatron have just the thing: Sentience Revoked, their brand new album and fourth overall. Following 2022 EP Agony Reborn, Gorgatron double down on the qualities that made them stand out in the first place: heavy brutality, technicality in the right spots and a lean approach to songwriting. It works like

Photo by Hillarie Jason On May 20, 2024, New Orleans sludge outfit Thou released a surprise full-album stream of their latest LP Umbilical. The real surprise? The tracks were available via a demo for Silenus, an upcoming game developed by indie studio Geography of Robots and described as “short, atmospheric narrative adventure” in which you

If you like death metal, you probably like Hyperdontia. The international outfit first came to prominence with their debut album, Nexus of Teeth, released via Dark Descent in 2018, and quickly established a reputation for making vicious, no-frills death metal. Further honing that sound on a handful of smaller releases and second LP Hideous Entity, Hyperdontia then

Where they from?Providence, Rhode Island. It is the middle of June, which means it’s officially baseball season. My team, the lowly New York Metropolitans, is currently on a six-game winning streak [yet still remain behind the dreadful Washington Nationals in the NL East –ed]. The catalyst? They have not tasted defeat since they had the