Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

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Album Reviews

Album Review: Ruyned – Profanum Sacrificium

With previous releases titled Eternal Torment and Sex’n Speed, Timișoara, RUYNED made it clear that its goal was to unleash short but effective battle raids into the lands of modern metal, armed with weapons and vengeance from a time long past. On its second, Profanum Sacrificium, the band switches gears, its vengeful wrath for the travesty of Europe’s roughly two centuries of witch hunting, trials and torment of innocents by the truly guilty. A contemplative guitar and keyboard pattern lulls us into false security, soon to be shredded by the rakish ‘n’ ragged roar of ‘Speedchain’. More precise in attack […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Venom – Into Oblivion

Now that VENOM INC. has self-destructed, the Cronos-led VENOM emerges from the rubble as the sole inheritor of the name. It’s been a while since we’ve heard from them, but Into Oblivion breaks the silence with a deafening roar. To be honest, this band will never equal their paradigm-shattering early days. Yet this version of VENOM has now endured far longer than the original triad…and on Into Oblivion, it really shows. This is one of the best post-Mantas albums, maybe even the best. Everything flows smoothly (with one major exception that I’ll get to), the guys are all locked into […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Mork – Monolitt

For over two decades, Norway’s MORK has become and remained a bastion of quality and reliability, releasing an album at least every few years. Granted, some have rang truer than others, but each has stood on its own merit for the time, and at the least warranted repeated listens. Thomas Eriksen is MORK, plain and simple, so victory or defeat rests squarely on his shoulders when it comes to Monolitt. ‘Under Vekten Av Verden’ unfurls a massive dark flag across an unforgiving storm-swept sky, cleaved by riff lightning, heaving with the thunderous rumble of Asgeir Mickelson’s (more on that later) […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Speedslut – Cimbrian Rites

From the earliest occultic bursts of MERCYFUL FATE to the speed-fueled attacks of ARTILLERY, INVOCATOR, and the underrated FURIOUS TRAUMA, the country of Denmark – with a population less than New York City alone – has clearly made its presence known in the realm of heavy music. Thus, it’s safe to say any Danish speed/thrash band has a high bar already set. Enter SPEEDSLUT, last year’s Ferocity Of Steel EP waving the denim ‘n’ leather flag proudly, its 12 minutes less a thoughtfully planned military operation than a wild shot into enemy territory to make clear its malicious intent. Sharp-tongued […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Du Cane – Veil Of The Abyss

Progressive rock (and now metal) has a somewhat distinct problem, much like fusion, in that so much of it claims to be and so little of it is truly progressive. This has been an issue since the early days of the style, in which any band with a keyboardist fancied itself the new YES, the new ELP, the new NEKTAR, despite doing little or nothing to actually move the music forward; to progress. The same plagued jazz, experiencing its own renaissance almost in parallel to progressive rock, resulting in what would be called “fusion”. DU CANE is a new band […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Lungburner – Dogma

Meditative metal is an actual thing. There’s not enough of it around to be an actual functioning subgenre (yet) but it’s out there and that is the space where Atlanta’s LUNGBURNER functions. I must say Dogma caught me by surprise. With the band name and cover art, I was expecting some angry groove metal or even straight nu-metal, but this is much more intellectual and interesting than that. Doom plays a sizable part of the LUNGBURNER equation. Slow, undulating tempos predominate and the guitar tone is thick and heavy. But I wouldn’t call it sludge, as the music doesn’t seem […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Dead Void – Cranial Devastation

Danish death/doom duo A & K return from 2022’s Volatile Forms, having trimmed the lineup to themselves, each taking up portions of the bass, adding to their respective drums and guitars, and now unleashing Cranial Devastation upon us. Well, let’s hope so. You can’t just drop a title like that and not deliver. Actually, you can, and we’ve seen it far too frequently before. ‘Regurgitation Of Ancient Manifest’, thankfully, drips with bass-drenched plod, oozing slow yet vile malignance from every festering pore. RUNEMAGICK comes to mind, a less off-the-rails KHANATE due to the focus employed. Around the 2:20 mark, the […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Endseeker – Coffin Born [EP]

After 12 years, 4 studio albums, and hanging onto the same lineup through it all, Germany’s ENDSEEKER depart this sewage planet via Coffin Born. ‘Enemies Of Peace’ conjures images of tanks cresting the hill, but you’re in the valley and doomed. Elements of SACRILEGE, MEMORIAM, and whatever DYING FETUS wishes they could ever be join the rampage party, which only increases the sense of volatile danger. Witness ‘No After. No Before’, where off-time rhythms and riffs careen into the title track, sirens and slaughter surrounding your twitching, pleading forms. ‘Life Breeds Death’ grants no reprieve, and a DAVID HASSELHOFF cover […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Witch Ripper – Through The Hourglass

When a band’s PR one-sheet compares any band to MASTODON, DAVID BOWIE and COHEED AND CAMBRIA not only in the same paragraph, but the same damn sentence, ya just gotta wonder what kind of fever dream or ayahuasca trip was being recovered from here. You know the bands themselves don’t write these, and – while you trust this particular source – you kinda hope for the best. WITCH RIPPER’s been at it awhile now, and Through The Hourglass is it’s third. Riding on the back of two solid releases, the chances of the ball being completely dropped are few, but […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: The Ghoulstars – The Dark Overlords Of The Universe

I used to have quite a liking for horror punk…indeed, for any music connected to the horror genre…but in recent years, the flood of cosplay “monster bands” has soured me on a lot of it. Everybody today loves to play dress up…we have Vikings, Ninjas, Pirates, aliens. And of course, monsters. Monsters up the wazoo. So forgive me if I’m not impressed by THE GHOULSTARS all that much. Oddly, these guys have roots in Finnish underground death-doom, with members of KUOLEMANLAAKSO and HOODED MENACE amongst their ranks. Expect none of that here, as THE GHOULSTARS are a way for them […]

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