Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

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Album Review: Cancer – Inverted World

CANCER has never been a groundbreaking band, but the first trio of albums in the early ‘90s did establish John Walker, Ian Buchanan and Carl Stokes as a solid act, perfectly capable of holding its own in a direct support slot with the giants of the heavier end of the metal spectrum. Sadly, the grunge, heavy “alternative”, and groove metal scenes swallowed the band whole and shat it out the other end, resulting in the band’s very own Cold Lake, the feeble grasp at modern “relevance” called Black Faith (1995). They weren’t the only band this happened to, by any […]

Music News

Phoenix Psychedelic Alternative Rock Act, Media, Releases Eponymous CD Collecting All Three Parts Of Sixth Mass Extinction Concept Trilogy

Phoenix, Arizona based psychedelic/alternative rock trio MEDIA presents an eponymous CD collecting the three parts of their concept trilogy documenting the Sixth Mass Extinction in one album. MEDIA was founded by Billy Tegethoff (The Oxford Coma) and Richard Wnuk who performed this first piece of the triptych, with Tegethoff handling guitar, bass, and vocals, Wnuk playing drums, and both contributing various synthesizers and electronics throughout the release. Wnuk had a very clear picture of how he wanted the record to sound, so he wore the producer hat throughout a very meticulous mixing process. Following the recording of Influence, the duo […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Meatwound – Macho

Florida sludgecore/noise purveyors, MEATWOUND return after six years to unceremoniously thrust us into the fetid season of swamp ass and eternally pit-stained T-shirts with the aptly titled Macho. Reconvening with a new drummer in the human guise of Dimitri Stoyanov, Messrs. Wallace, Iglesias (not Julio), and Barros have something brewing behind the somehow grisly hot pink and lime green façade of the cover. The garishness arrives on the back of ‘Compressed Hell’, programmed throb and drums kicking these grumpy old men back into action in rare form, scattered like buckshot from a lupara, leaving wounds jagged and unable to clot. […]

Music News

Post-hardcore force Row Of Ashes bring the noise with new album Tide Into Ruin – out June 13th

I will not swallow the lie of progress, the myth of blue skies from sunrise to sunset. I will not chew on broken glass and smile as my ripped and tattered mouth spills blood onto my emaciated chest. I will not cheer the liars, gazing upon them with tear-glazed eyes, whispering to myself ‘I’ve never had it so good’. My eyes will stay open as they strip me of all but my skin and I’ll hide the pills beneath my pillow filled with ashes so that I feel every cut they administer. My life will hurt me to the end […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Spiritworld – Helldorado

For me, hell is standing eternally in the middle of a plain. On one side, every mumble-rapper with “Lil” in his name is belting out garbage on Autotune. On the other side, we have phony cowboy hat guys calling themselves “Clay” and “Tucker” playing the horror that passes for modern country music on a loop. I cannot imagine a fate worse than this! Which makes it a surprise that I actually like SPIRITWORLD, a band that started out playing “outlaw country” and then switched over to raging SLAYERized thrash metal with a spaghetti Western aura. I suspect that Stu Folsom, […]

Music News

APPALOOZA: new single ‘Magnolia’ out now

Brittany-based heavy rock powerhouse APPALOOZA unleash their brand new single and video, ‘Magnolia’, a rip-roaring first excerpt off their forthcoming fourth album, The Emperor Of Loss, due out in the fall of 2025 through Ripple Music. The fiery French trio takes no prisoners and unleashes all their horsepower on new single ‘Magnolia’, hitting with more volume, distortion and grit than ever before. About the song theme, APPALOOZA says: “This song subtly explores the theme of Stockholm syndrome, delving into a profound sense of loss, isolation, and existential disorientation. The narrator — a woman — seems emotionally stranded, as if caught […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Coffin Feeder – Big Trouble

What do you get when you cross ABORTED, LENG T’CHE, WHEN PLAGUES COLLIDE and a lesser known but equally deserving of praise band named FLEDDY MELCULY? Well, we’re about to find out, as Belgium’s COFFIN FEEDER has taken members of these bands, heaved them into a woodchipper, and now – three years after the aural abuse of Stereo Homicide and Over The Top EPs – cranked out its debut long-player. After a foreboding ‘There Will Be Trouble’, Big Trouble kicks in with the whirling, rusted circular saw blade that is ‘Porkchop Express’, the triple vocal attack of Sven and guitarists […]

Music News

HARM’S WAY: Other World EP Out; New Video Now Playing + Band To Kick Off North American Tour With Full Of Hell

Chicago’s HARM’S WAY is pleased to unleash their Other World EP. The two-track offering features the title track alongside a reimagined version of ‘Wanderer’ from the band’s critically lauded Common Suffering full-length. Comments the band, “The track ‘Other World’ was originally recorded during the Common Suffering sessions at Studio 4, but was ultimately held off the album. We revisited and remixed the track ourselves to now be delivered to you. In addition, we reimagined the track ‘Wanderer’ for this single/EP, with help of our friend King Yosef taking on some collaborative production duties. Now titled ‘V.Y.B.S.S.’, both songs deliver a […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Avenger Of Blood – Revenge Is My Name

After spreading out 3.5 albums on four labels over the past decade (The .5 happens when you re-record your first album despite it being less than 10 years old. Come on, guys!), AVENGER OF BLOOD returns with Revenge Is My Name on M-Theory Audio. The title track, however, recoils like a turret-mounted .50 cal, reminiscent of early WARBRINGER and LAZARUS A.D., never a bad thing. A death-tinged churn begins ‘Throes Of Temptation’, vocalist/guitarist Sal Lalli spitting out his best Mille Petrozza once the speed kicks in, and ‘Til Death Do We Thrash’ is the ‘Toxic Waltz’-styled anthem every band of […]

Music News

DESEKRYPTOR: US death metal duo announce new EP Sarcophagal Corridors on Nuclear Winter Records

DESEKRYPTOR will unleash their new EP Sarcophagal Corridors on May 16th, 2025 via Nuclear Winter Records. Marking a bold shift in their creative approach, the band deconstructed their usual songwriting method by starting with drums instead of riffs. Percussionist P.A. recorded raw, unanchored drum tracks that guitarist E.S. then manipulated and smothered with riffs designed to overpower the rhythms. While the unorthodox process could have resulted in utter chaos, it instead gave birth to some of the most refined and structurally cohesive material the band has produced to date. Sarcophagal Corridors stands as a testament to DESEKRYPTOR’s willingness to experiment […]

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