Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

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Album Reviews

Album Review: Methane – Demolate

Okay, first, the cover art. Look, call me old fashioned, call me what the Hell ever, but I’m puke-sick over the sheer amount of AI-generated crap masquerading as album art these days. Hell, I didn’t even like most of ANTHRAX’s album art, if that tells you anything. METHANE, it seems, didn’t even try with the “art” that disgraces Demolate, so I’m not even sure if an accidental pressing of NUCLEAR ASSAULT’s Game Over into the grooves could save this record already. Granted, those familiar with Sweden’s version of MUNICIPAL WASTE can’t be expecting anything except the party-thrash the band is […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Hexbane – From Hell

In which members of ROTTING CHRIST, EMPEROR and ELECTRIC WIZARD as HEXBANE revive the days when black metal was dangerous, standing opposed to all except itself. ‘From Hell’ spits vitriol, tremolo picking shanks in the guts while drums of disgust and Sheol-born bass hold aloft a shattered screech. There’s no nowadays here whatsoever, no pissing about to get to the point. “From Hell we ride, ascending darkness.” Fuck yeah, they do. Following, ‘Nefarious Spells’ is a rigid ‘n’ frigid blast of icy storm, the more menacing for the measured and intentional pacing, reveling in the damage it’s causing. Wish the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Jehovah On Death – Lagrimas de Oro

Occult rock…proto-metal…devil pop…call it what you will, the surprising success of GHOST has seen a rise in similar bands. Most are just derivative bandwagon-jumpers, but once in a while, you strike gold and that’s where we find JEHOVAH ON DEATH. Here’s a band that sets their own bar and then tries to jump it. The group hails from Greece, which is surprising, given that Lagrimas De Oro has a very Spanish flavor to it. That’s one of the things that helps it stand out. I would describe their sound as drawing on the first three BLUE ÖYSTER CULT albums, the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: EXP – EXP

When you see the names COP SHOOT COP and LUBRICATED GOAT in a “current/former members of” PR blurb – to say nothing of the legend-making SWANS – there’s a certain level of gritty beauty and off-kilter quality that’s expected, nay, demanded. And that demand goes both ways, as those three bands have built careers on challenging their listeners, both stylistically and lyrically over decades. Now crawls from the gutter EXP with its self-titled debut, and woe be to the unprepared. Opening with the bombed-out groove of ‘Havoc On The Astral’, the sound is more reined in than those familiar with […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Street Tombs – Existence Is Corruption

Santa Fe’s STREET TOMBS approaches its stench-ridden tenth year writhing in life’s rotting embrace, and what better way to celebrate with a hopefully pummeling death metal monster? Let’s find out if Existence Is Corruption… Careening and crusted over, ‘Pestilent Storm’ spot welds the early Combat Core sound of ENGLISH DOGS and BROKEN BONES to MONSTROSITY’s Imperial Doom with devastating consequences. ‘Deceptor’ bristles with a more thrash style, as ‘Septic Values’ returns us to the oft’ missed days and nights of shows at local punk squats/basements with 6-10 bands (“$5 or bring canned food for donation to the local food bank”) […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Torpor – Dungeon Descent

Here is a phantom rising from the mists of history, no less notable than a woolly mammoth or an Egyptian pharaoh appearing in our current age. Emerging from Warsaw, Poland, TORPOR is a three piece metal band that resurrects a forgotten sound from the past to become something new in our maddening patchwork of modern music. It’s very hard to describe what TORPOR does here. It’s not just another ’70s or ’80s nostalgia band because their sound is so unique, and one unheard for decades. They knit together various threads of the past into an album that’s enchanting to listen […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Horrifier – Revelations Of Gore

Returning to revile after last year’s walloping Burial Ground EP, Oslo’s HORRIFIER opens its dread tome of death to reveal Revelations Of Gore. After the obligatory intro of ‘Voices’ (check!), ‘Compelled To Slaughter’ begins not with a bang, but a low-level dungeon doom crawl before ripping the lid off with early CANNIBAL CORPSE riffing. That it eventually returns to the realms of doom for the bridge seems less like a throwaway idea and more the foursome stretching themselves, so that by the time the song careens to its explosive end we’re captivated by the off-kilter rhythms, a musical car crash […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Wormwood – Å [EP]

Over a decade and four albums into its career, Sweden’s WORMWOOD knows what it is and what it is not. This doesn’t at all prevent the band from stretching itself, as in the newest EP, Å. ‘Yra|Extas’ ignites at the start, and possibly too quickly moves to a mid-paced yet robust and cinematic pattern, and we’re in and on the journey. A languid, understated jazz influence arrives, in no rush, slowly building back to boisterous and highly tuneful blackness. Lastly, ‘Purposeless Geometry’ delves into certain ULVER in its use of electronics, but with guitars reeking of such melody even the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Stormkeep – The Nocturnes Of Iswylm

While there is a Denver sound – make no mistake about it; from the twang ‘n’ travail of early 16 HORSEPOWER to the tent revival atmosphere of SLIM CESSNA’S AUTO CLUB, to the prairie-wide expansiveness of those first several ACROSS TUNDRAS albums to the Western noir of WAYFARER – the “sound” has always been more beholden to an ancient land, olden times, a sense of exploration of the soul and world itself that is truly of its surroundings than to genre convention. In this realm, the symphonic black metal of STORMKEEP may seem out of place, at least on the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Morgal – The Seventh Circle

Though over a decade in existence, The Seventh Circle is only MORGAL’s second album, and first as a quartet. 2020’s Nightmare Lord was a nasty barrage typical of the band’s native Finland, but one got the feeling that more could be done. Founders SS Exiler [drums] and Crusher [guitars] must’ve felt the same; to that end, a new bassist/vocalist [Tomb Nekrofiler] and guitarist by the name of Killhammer were added to the force. ‘Stormchaser’ wafts in on calm, subtle winds, only for a NIFELHEIM-styled lightning ‘n’ thunder orgy to fuck the sky with fire and acid. The band’s tighter than […]

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