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 ten years before calling it quits in the mid-1990s. At...

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 helping any. Like I just told main Everybody Wants Some...

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 plain ole writerly me concerning the self-generating and constantly-evolving visual...

“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 minds on March 28. Click that image for the full...

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 of Slumber. Annick "the Morbid Chef" Giroux of Canada's mighty...

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 I'm going to see and support my longtime friend and...

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

When I was 14 I had it all — a weekly metal radio show on a college radio station that reached Rochester, Syracuse, and Ithaca (don't discount Ithaca, S.O.D. were recording there!); an excellent...

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 of AT THE GATES. This has been floating around the...

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 talk. Dee Snider and his Fangoria Radio co-host Debbie Rochon (a...

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 by Lou Rusconi. Riddick has never heard the band, and...

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, and most totally real reality show to date? Depends how...

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 chief Albert Mudrian's book Choosing Death: The Improbable History...

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 Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal. “I started following those...

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 Zvijeri, as it's known in Croatia. I love that Great Britain...

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 for more details." Or at least, so says the parked web...

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 myself...and it's always done by scissors and glue...Always waiting for...

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 play a lead guitar solo. So who's the guy on...

Garage Days Pre-Visited: The $0.00 Blog Post

Not-so-secret passage leading to the rock and roll hall of fame; good job to Metallica, and by proxy Diamond Head, Holocaust, Killing Joke, Budgie, and the Misfits--to name a few. fdqwR0ISPDE AJB7RcCKhoI&hl 1CrMlAe0cfQ&hl 95pvK0_wGb8&hl LoSKaN7FqE4&hl wQ5MQI8Boes&hl