Kalamazoo’s Bronson Arm are a duo who deliver noise rock via a stripped down conglomeration of baritone guitar, drums and vocals. As such, their sound falls on the less dense, smoke-filled room side of the sonic spectrum, utilizing more contrast between paint peeling vocals, sparse rhythmic thumping and spacious percussion than it does oppressive walls of sound and neck-vein bulging screeching. Imagine the Jesus Lizard doing jazz hall jams with Morphine, Sonic Youth hiding Unsane’s distortion pedals or heroin (the drug and the band) never making it to the city of Seattle.

The band, consisting of vocalist/guitarist Blake Bickel and drummer Garrett Yates, recently released their self-titled debut full-length, which combines 2021’s Tosser EP with brand new material, on Learning Curve Records and today you can get a taste of what Bronson Arm have to offer in shape of the video “One With the Floor.”

Says Blake Bickel about the song and video: “When I started writing this song I kept on envisioning fog rolling over a dark wooded hill. I wanted to create a sound…a song that evoked a sense of sheer terror and impending doom that slowly crept in and consumed you. I wanted to create a feeling of, ‘Oh, fuck. That thing. That thing I dread is starting again. Here it comes.’

“For me, this song is about the foreboding dread of bad things to come. However, when the folks over at Dark Boiler Productions approached us about making a video for the song, I intentionally did not tell them anything about the song or what was behind it. I wanted to give them free rein to create whatever inspired them; allow them to pull their own meaning out of the song. And this video is what they came up with. Conversely, I made a point of not asking about the narrative they depicted. I love it! I think it’s fantastic!”

In our mind and interpretation, the songs’ grungy, loping feel is deftly captured and accurately displayed by the performers and visuals which reference a generation-whatever-backend-letter-of-the-alphabet-people-are-being-categorized-as despondent, slacker vibe fostered by a sense of exclusion from the mainstream before finding solace in counterculture and confidence in the self. I’m sure we’re all familiar with the feeling.

Bronson Arm was mixed by Robert Cheek (Deftones, Band of Horses, Tera Melos) and mastered by Blake Bickel and is out now on Learning Curve Records. Info, ordering links and upcoming shows below. You know the drill.

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*photo credit: Jacob Ludecker

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Hailing from Dublin, The Risen Dread are six years into their existence with an EP and full-length under their spiffy stage clothes and available for public consumption. Drawing influence from death metal and metalcore, the band have scattered the scenes at home in Ireland and the UK as well as parts of Europe with promise and a precipitous exploration of the dark side of life on Planet Shit Hammer. Later this year, another release is scheduled to be foisted upon the world, but until then the band have pushed their focus toward newest single and video, “Betrayal.” Guitarist William Ribeiro comments:

“‘Betrayal’ is almost a rebirth of The Risen Dread as a band. We’re very happy with the sound of it. It has everything from headbanging riffs to blast beats and more. We also want to mention that Vasilis Nanos is the drummer on this track. He’s done an incredible job for us. We can’t wait to announce the things we’ve got in store for 2024. Fans can expect some exciting news!

“‘Betrayal’ draws inspiration from the harrowing tale of Blanche Monnier, a French socialite confined to a lightless room for 25 years by her own mother and brother at the age of 25. The song delves into the depths of her tragic story, encapsulating the essence of betrayal that led to the naming of our poignant composition. The video captures her feeling of being kept locked. However, we approached the video in a more modern way instead of trying to capture how things were when that happened.”

The story of Monnier is especially chilling, distressing and brutal. Read a bit more about it here and watch and listen to “Betrayal” below.

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Featuring members of Nile, Rapheumets Well and Nile’s road crew, North Carolina sci-fi obsessed freaks Xael issued their second full-length, Bloodtide Rising back in February via Pavement Entertainment and today we’re premiering their video for “Srai – The Demon of Erring.” As heavy on the conceptualism as they are on the orchestrated metal, Xael have delivered an immersive experience with the concept of Bloodtide Rising which according to their bio goes a little something like this:

“Imprisoned by the counsel of Tymeer, led by the insidious entity Sen. Darmak ‘cursed with a degrading immortality’ and the Watchers of Xan were presented as an offering to the Sovereign Ruler and rare species collector, Atara Avuniir in exchange for military and economic support. Finding favor with the Queen, the Watchers were integrated into her elite guard where they became renowned for their success. Unforeseen, the Queen fell in love with Darkmak and she would bear to him a son. Vuul Athmar along with the outer planets of the Eiasian-Rim prospered yet the queen harbors a dark secret, an anomaly that threatens the outer-worlds.”

Got that? Good, because I haven’t the slightest idea what they’re on about. But don’t let that stop you; if you don’t feel like twisting your brain around the storyline, you can twist your brain around their progressive and labyrinthine take on blackened death metal a la Fleshgod Apocalypse, Dimmu Borgir, Cattle Decapitation, SepticFlesh and Nile.

When pressed for a comment about the video and the album from which the song is taken, the band replied by saying: “This video ventures back to tell how the antagonist Darmak of the story ended up with Srai, a deviant entity that some call a demon. It’s pretty much stalking him, but he ends up besting Srai. Unfortunately, the antagonist of the story suffers from an illness that causes him to faint in which he pretty much wakes up in the middle of a ritual with it trying to murder him (though unsuccessful). We were very limited in what we could do during the pandemic but I believe we pulled it off! The song has a mix of thrash, blackened death metal, and symphonic elements. We hope you guys enjoy.”

And about the album:

“In Xael, we are trying to not only create some brutal and primal metal, but cultivate the fusion of storytelling and epic adventures. We are building a multiverse with diverse planets and odd-powerful creatures, taking listeners on a journey. This specific album follows the ‘watchers’ as we are assimilated into the vile and mysterious world of Vuul Athmar. It is a tragic love story turned horror. Musically, we incorporate tribal elements, Asian and traditional folk instruments, and an array of vocals to capture the variety of emotions. Though there was a global pandemic, we worked hard to bring this musical odyssey alive and we are excited to finally share it.”

We’re also sure they’re excited to get back on the road after being recently being announced as openers for Bloodbath’s return to North America:

May 2022 Tour Dates w/ Bloodbath
May 22 – Brooklyn, NY – Warsaw
May 23 – Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club
May 24 – Montreal, QC – L’Astral
May 25 – Toronto, ON – Opera House
Tickets on sale at www.bloodbath.biz

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The last year-plus of isolation, lockdowns and no live music or tours may have been a kick in the crotch for many of our mental health and social lives. On the other hand, it’s personally allowed me to literally do nothing but work almost every day since April 2020 and thusly, have no credit card debt since I-can’t-even-remember-the-last-time-when. It’s also allowed those musicians with normally packed touring schedules to hit the studio and contribute to projects they otherwise might never have had time for.

One of those folks is a guy you may have heard us mention once or twice named Dave Lombardo. The other is Justin Pearson who, pandemic or not, always seems to manage to attach his name and playing to a variety of projects in his apparent never-ending battle against sleep and free time. Mr. Lombardo, on the other hand, found himself with nowhere to go once the multitudes of bands he was juggling (including Mr. Bungle, Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Cross, Misfits and whatever else I’m forgetting) had all their live plans scuttled. This allowed the former drummer from a band called you may have heard of called Slayer, the time to consider the umpteen number of session spot requests people have been probably throwing at him since he stopped haunting that particular chapel for good in 2013.

One project Lombardo jumped whole hog into was Satanic Planet. Lombardo, Pearson, hip-hop producer Luke Henshaw and frontman and internationally recognised Satanist, Lucien Greaves (co-founder and spokesperson of the Satanic Temple) have banded together in the creation of the project’s self-titled debut album of eerie, tribal, gothic, post-punk, ceremonial doomy industrial scoundscapes that also employs the talents of guests like Cattle Decapitation’s Travis Ryan, Nomi Abadi, Silent’s Jung Sing, Shiva Honey, Eric Livingston (a.k.a. First Church of the Void), and Hexa’s Carrie Feller.

Today, we’re presenting the video for the album’s title track, a fast-paced chanter with visuals that summon the power of old-school Saturday morning cartoons and, as Greaves describes:

“The Satanic Planet theme is an entire Satanic Panic condensed into under two minutes of blistering, rapid-fire, paranoid meltdown, complete with backward masking. Knowing that Satanic Planet, the band, will be a controversial act that will inspire pearl-clutching bible-thumpers to comb our material looking for evidence to confirm their worst fears, we decided to save them time by compiling a lyrical laundry list of anti-Satanist delusions that can be appropriately taken as mockery, or moronically as advocacy. Satanic Planet has something for everybody!”

Also, to quote the band’s bio: “These dark musical soundscapes serve as a vessel to share the important messages that The Satanic Temple stands for, including religious freedom, highlighting the hypocrisy in dominant organized religions, and the horrific consequences of pseudoscience and malpractice still being utilized today in America.”

Satanic Planet, the album, was recorded and produced by Luke Henshaw and Dave Lombardo. Mixed and mastered by Brent Asbury. Cover art by Stomp the Holy Bones. Layout by The Black Moon Design. It will be released by Three One G Records digitally, as well as on CD and vinyl, with four limited edition vinyl variants on May 28th. Preorder here.

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Puerto Rican outfit Necronemesis keep it faithful, peddling no-frills, filthy death metal on their upcoming full-length, Some Things Should Stay Underground. Not to be confused with the band’s 2005 demo of the same name, Some Things Should Stay Underground features legendary guitarist Rick Rozz, best known as a founding member of Death and pre-Death group Mantas, as a guest member.

Decibel has partnered with the band to premiere “They Live in the Attic,” the second song from Some Things Should Stay Underground. The song is like a steamroller, picking up momentum and rolling straight through. Rozz’s shreds and dive bombs through the album, which is notably better produced and recorded than the band’s previous demo and EP.

Rozz, who is not a full-time member of Necronemesis, had positive things to say about the band after working with them.

“Great guys, and a brutal band,” he tells Decibel. “It was a honor and pleasure to do some whammy shenanigans on this album, wishing them all the best in the future.”

Some Things Should Stay Underground is out June 4 on Horror Pain Gore Death. Listen to “They Live in the Attic” and pre-order the album via the Bandcamp embed below.

Some Things Should Stay Underground by NECRONEMESIS

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Denmark thrash demons, Killing have been, well, killing it since originally forming in 2013 and all the hard work which has seen them independently issue two EPs and bring the rage to the stage throughout Europe over the years has paid off as the band recently signed on the dotted line with Mighty Music/Target Group who will be releasing the band’s debut full-length, Face the Madness. The album was recorded at Dead Rat Studio with producer Jacob Bredahl (Horned Almighty, Koldborn, ex-Hatesphere vocalist) and is set for release later this year on August 13^th.

One can never claim that Killing isn’t on the ball as they’ve already issued a video for what we presume will be the album’s first single, “Kill Everyone.” As drummer Jesper Skousen reports, “‘Kill Everyone’ is a fierce little bastard that should satisfy most thrash fans who are into aggression and violence; a short and fast attack of pure energy. The lyrics for this one were written by our bass player/vocalist, Rasmus Soelberg and are like a little continuation of the ‘Toxic Asylum’ theme from our first EP and the zombie-video for our single ‘Raise Your Anger.’ It’s about voices in the head of a mental patient, who tells you to kill….kill everyone!”

The video itself makes use of the old horror movie/grainy VHS production value one would expect from a band that loves force feeding raucous, mid-to-late ’80s east coast thrash and Germany’s Big Three into one another and visually answers the question, “what happens when two killers meet and one is more prepared than the other?”

For more info, music, merch and videos, check out Killing on Facebook, Bandcamp and YouTube

*Photos by Camilla Lundbye

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Where they from?
Quebec. I know I’m not alone in saying this but, BRING BACK THE NORDIQUES! I was lucky enough to go to Quebec Deathfest in 2019 (in the before times) and despite getting to see one of my all-time bucket list bands live (the mighty Brodequin) the absolute highlight of the trip for me was finding a Quebec Nordiques’ beanie in the athletic store down the street. One of the all-time best logos in professional sports and they gave us Peter Forsberg on top of that! BRING BACK THE ‘DIQUES, YOU DICKS!

Why the hype?
So, back in December of 2020, Kshitiz Moktan of grindcore pioneers Chepang put together the world’s first online grindcore festival, Global Grindcore Alliance! (Rumor is he’s planning another follow up in May with some even more killer bands). As difficult a year it was for discovering new music in 2020, these Quebecians instantly caught my ear. They play deathgrind the right way, with the spastic parts just splaying out in front of you in every possible direction until the timely breakdowns come in and like a lasso around your feet, hang you from the ceiling. I think I saw that in a Clint Eastwood movie once… damn, what was the name of it? Ugh, I can’t remember. Anywho, this band is sure to scratch all the itches of people who miss bands like Maruta and Priapus. I know I sure do!

Latest release?
Split with Assidious Assault. Lots of straight BANGERS on this one but I’d like to take a second to highlight “Blood of the Hybrids.” which starts off with some TASTEFUL NU METAL CHUGGING before contorting itself into one hell of a Discordance Axis impression. That’s right, in 2021 we can use nu metal tastefully and there’s nothing wrong with that? Oh, I just remembered the name of the movie… MILLION DOLLAR BABY!

Split with ASSIDUOUS ASSAULT by Chadhel

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