Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

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Mamaleek Share ‘Ancient Souls, No Longer Sorrowful’

Loss has informed MAMALEEK’s newest full-length album, Vida Blue. Tragedy struck in March of 2023 when the band lost a longtime friend and member, keyboardist Eric Livingston, leaving the group, which began as a duo of two brothers and later expanded to a five-piece, with only four members. Despite this profound loss, MAMALEEK persevered, performing as a quartet at various festivals, including a ground-shaking performance at the 2023 edition of Roadburn. Following, MAMALEEK returned to the studio to create new material that appropriately reflects their journey through loss and honors their fallen comrade. The resulting album draws inspiration from the […]

Di’Aul – EP II [EP]

‘Azazel’ is wrapped in the fuzz for which DI’AUL has been known, the band moving at a plod, yet managing to keep from walking so slowly as to fall on its face. The “solo” is less an actual solo than a few notes wrung out from the consistent rhythm-based riffs. Tasteful, minimalist, and fitting the song. Continuing the measured gait, ‘Golgotha’ hefts itself forward only by sheer force of will, but we find DI’AUL becoming more adept at using the open spaces that seemed to be filled with nothing in its early output. With as many EPs as full lengths […]

WORSHIPPER drop new single ‘Heroic Dose’

WORSHIPPER drop a psychedelic lyric video featuring the super heavy track ‘Heroic Dose’ as the next single taken from the Boston psychedelic hard rockers’ forthcoming third album, One Way Trip, which is scheduled for release on July 19, 2024. Watch the video for ‘Heroic Dose’ WORSHIPPER comment on ‘Heroic Dose’: “This is the final song that we wrote for the record, and probably the most personal for me”, guitarist and singer John Brookhouse reveals. “I lost my dad in 2022, and one of the last conversations that we had was about his time in Vietnam. As I was writing the […]

Album Review: Blaze Of Perdition – Upharsin

BLAZE OF PERDITION has made a name for itself in a country known for a blistering, early SLAYER-ized take on both black and death metal by adding a fluidity and sense of peaks and valleys that has thus far set it apart from the more known exports of Poland. On its second for Metal Blade, the band has taken the bold step of releasing Upharsin in their native tongue, a first for them when it comes to full lengths. At once, ‘W kwiecie rozlamu’ seems more outwardly abrasive, but soon enough moves into a mid-paced (don’t call it a) groove […]

ANANDA MIDA: Live At Duna Jam album announced on HPS Records

Heavy ’70s blues collective ANANDA MIDA (with vocalist Conny Ochs) announce the release of the Live At Duna Jam album this July 12th on Heavy Psych Sounds, and premiere the video for ‘The Future’ exclusively on It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine. Watch ANANDA MIDA perform ‘The Future’ ANANDA MIDA is a stoner and psychedelic rock music collective led by Max Ear (OJM’s drummer and Go Down Records’ Art Director) and Matteo Pablo Scolaro. From the very beginning of the project, graphic imagery has been given a crucial role thanks to the precious collaboration with the visual artist Eeviac. Since 2015, they […]

Album Review: Black Totem – III: Sacrifice Tonite

Well, BLACK TOTEM has reached it; that time in a band’s career when I would normally be giving my trademark, copyrighted, and infallible spiel about how important a band’s third album is. But I won’t, as these Finns are all about keeping things short, simple, and to the point. Might as well join the party at the cemetery… ‘Hex Hood’ sneaks in under the fog, but only briefly, as the cryptkicker drums and fiery riffs ignite torches around the perimeter, and you know you’re in trouble. As guitarist/vocalist Spit Poison so aptly, well, spits “This is Hex Hood, ain’t no […]

Sijjeel unleash the death metal insanity of Affiliation Of Horrid Containment

After the scenes of carnage left by last year’s two track EP, The Concurrent Cycle, SIJJEEL have returned once again with more sounds of otherworldly horror – this time a full album of mind-breaking, soul-burning death metal of the very darkest hues. More deeply steeped in the essence of terror than ever before, SIJJEEL have invoked the ineffable, the unspeakable…the Affiliation Of Horrid Containment! Drinking deeply from a well of inspiration whose waters are black with the blood of old gods and the effluence of devils, SIJJEEL have summoned into existence an album of horror and madness such as other […]

Slugcrust – Discharge(d) [EP]

When you consider that SLUGCRUST’s two EPs, full length album and split release with Floridians SWAMP clock in at under 1 hour, you know what you’re getting with Discharge(d). ‘The Antitrust’ is audio warfare ala PIG DESTROYER, pure and visceral. ‘Feral Natural’ stalks with menace, a giardia-infected WOORMS while ‘V4’ packs a bass-fueled fury, a band always existing in that split second before the whole thing implodes. It’s with the title track, though, that the band’s unfuckwithable knack for writing riffs and beats that chisel and pound their way into your skull comes to fruition. Ever wondered what the tines […]

KVAEN: Swedish Melodic Death/Black Metallers To Release The Formless Fires Full-Length June 21st

KVAEN will release their third album, and first for Metal Blade Records, The Formless Fires, on June 21st. There are many great extreme metal bands in Sweden, but only one from Kalix. This remote beauty spot near the Finnish border, on the northernmost shores of the Baltic, is home to Jacob Björnfot, creative mastermind behind melodic black/death metal project, KVAEN. A sumptuous but bitingly intense exploration of beauty and violence, KVAEN’s The Formless Fires is a melodic black metal masterwork radiating an inspirational sense of place. Even more than 2020’s folky, speed metal-infused debut The Funeral Pyre or 2022’s compelling, […]

Album Review: DÅÅTH – The Deceivers

DÅÅTH returns after a smattering of 2023 singles, 14 years after their self-titled album left nary a blip on most folks’ radar with The Deceivers. That the album features one original member must be noted, as well as that the quintet has expanded, now including a third guitarist, as well as longtime vocalist Sean Zatorsky. So let’s see what fruits are born of sonic upheaval… ‘No Rest No End’ began melodically, until suddenly a wash of discombobulating keys broke any sense of fluidity. Thankfully, this was short-lived, a relatively catchy riff pattern devolving into groove metal grunt-fest, and then – […]