Portal Makes Me So Damn Happy

emrBZZtGFgI What can I tell you about the eerie, hooded Australian phenomenon Portal? Their cosmic puddle of death metal sounds to me like Morbid Angel...

POST MORTEM: Die, Funeral, Dead, R.I.P.

Though local wags in Boston dubbed these zoned-out punk metal thrashers "Post Boredom," this band deserves credit for digging its shallow trench for over...

Somebody Buy David Lee Roth a Beer

I have a hard time convincing skeptics of the fury of Van Halen in its prime, and the band in its current non-incarnation isn't...

The Look of Lava

Nobody told me, but a few weeks ago Alan Rapp's Critical Terrain design blog posted eight minutes of an interview with Stephen O'Malley and...

“Scream for Me, Argentina!”

Here's my rough attempt to capture the spectacle of 42,000 Iron Maiden fans streaming into Sarsfield stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, before losing their...

The Stew of True Doom

Feast your eyes on the Stew of True Doom, a molten metal masterpiece concocted by Karl Simon of the powerful Indy warlords The Gates...

Convincing People With F.J. Ossang’s SILENCIO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8yVn2wyCdU I've already sold my ticket for next week's Throbbing Gristle show at the Masonic Temple in Brooklyn, their first ever in New York, because...

TRANSGRESSION: “I Like To Smoke and I Like To Drink, but...

When I was 14 I had it all — a weekly metal radio show on a college radio station that reached Rochester, Syracuse, and...

AT THE GATES: Sirius Bloody Roots Interview, July 2008

Here's a rip from the Sirius live stream of my slickly-produced July 19, 2008 interview with singer Tomas Lindberg and guitarist Martin Larsson...

And Smurfs? And Smurfs.

7MAYrF1PDks UNICEF must have consulted Discharge before commissioning this anti-bombing TV spot starring the Smurfs. Thanks, Sarah!

Ian on Fangoria Radio for Friday the 13th

I've been doing a lot more talking and book publishing lately than demo posting, I'll admit. That's about to change. But tomorrow's reserved for...

Hermaphrodite Jihad WTF?

I'm working on a metal logos book with the mighty Mark Riddick, and he turned me onto this insanesterpiece, the logo for Hermaphrodite Jihad...

Black Task: Life Is Death, and Death Is Real

The infamous Blacktask EP. I saw this band at the Penny Arcade in Rochester, NY in October 1985. How about you?

WORST OSBOURNES EVERYTHING EVER

rnx7HP9OMtM Can you handle a YouTube video preview of Fox's Osbournes: Reloaded, the variety show starring Rosie O'Donnell the cast of MTV's first, most successful,...

Escoger o Eligir Muerte?

Saludos metaleros! Bazillion Points Publishing is putting out the call to capable Spanish translators to whip into shape a version espanol of Decibel...

Mean Deviation: Jeff Wagner Talks Progressive Metal

In his Noise Pollution blog for the Owensboro, KY, Messenger-Inquirer, reporter Jim Mayse queries Bazillion Points author Jeff Wagner about his upcoming book Mean...

Sound of the Beast, Croatian Edition

My friend Tea from VIS The Thunderbirds alerted me to the arrival of the Croatian edition of Sound of the Beast -- or Urlik...

Infernal Death: Church Is Bleeding!

"Infernal Death was the best-kept secret in the metal scene for years. Too bad all of the band members are dead now. Email me...

Decibel Mag Previews METALION Book

Waaaay ahead of publication, Decibel profiles Metalion author Jon Kristiansen in its March 2009 issue about his upcoming Slayer Mag book: "I mostly did everything...

Who Are You? #7

Ah, the brotherly power of vodka. So James Hetfield, long before he became a reformed old codger, is on the left drunkenly pretending to...