Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

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Album Review: White Ward – Love Exchange Failure

Long time music reviewers all have to deal with the possibility of burnout. You get so much thrown at you, it becomes increasingly difficult to be moved by a piece of music. In the metal realm, you hear a lot of “good” stuff that is pleasing but soon forgot. More rarely, you encounter a real headbanger that gets your blood flowing. But still it doesn’t enter the realm of something profound, of music that really opens your eyes and inspires. Those kind of records come along very, very rarely. Here is one that transcends the metal tag. I had no […]

Interview: Formicarius

Only in active state for the past five years, one could easily be tempted to write off London’s FORMICARIUS as yet another in the seemingly evermore crowded UK black metal bandwagon. Let’s call such a dismissal a reason to avoid temptation, then, as vocalist/guitarist Lord Saunders & co. have recently released the aural plague of Rending The Veil Of Flesh and, while not everyone’s cup of blood, for sure, to say the band has set a high standard for its next output will be clear to those who sup willingly upon first listen. Lord Randall sat down with the band […]

MONGREL’S CROSS announce ABSU’s Proscriptor as new vocalist

Aussie metal vanguard MONGREL’S CROSS have announced Absu’s Proscriptor as their vocalist. A statement from the band reads: “It is with great pleasure to announce the entire vocal performance for our upcoming full-length, Arcana, Scrying And Revelation, will be handled by none other than Proscriptor McGovern of Absu fame. Proscriptor has been a huge influence on us, and to have him bless our work is beyond humbling. Over the past few months, we have been conversing with the warrior of Ulster, and his dedication to metal and magic(k) is truly inspiring. You can expect nothing short of perfection with such […]

VAULTWRAITH set release date for new HELLS HEADBANGERS album

Hells Headbangers sets October 31st as the international release date for VAULTWRAITH’s highly anticipated second album, Light The Candle In Honour Of Devils, on CD format. Light The Candle In Honour Of Devils is a 12-song epic of pure Devilcraft Metal: VAULTWRAITH’s own morbid mix of heavy ’80s-inspired speed/thrash metal, combined with demonic death/black metal riffs/vocals, atmospheric horror-inspired keyboards, and a King Diamond/Candlemass-influenced vibe of evil and doom. VAULTWRAITH’s debut album for Hells Headbangers, 2017’s Death Is Proof Of Satan’s Power, was a surprising and original success with lethal critical praise from the horror and metal underground, including England’s Metal […]

Album Review: Exhumed

On their previous album Death Revenge, EXHUMED experimented with more involved songwriting and a conceptual storytelling approach. Reaction to the record was decidedly mixed, so the gorehounds have gone back to basics and stripped their music to the literal bone. Horror disposes of the long songs and ambient interludes and dives into a pit of simple gory grind. The band is probably going to want to kill me for this, but I actually prefer Death Revenge. That was an album that took a few risks with the formula. Horror is pretty much formula deathgrind right to the core. With sixteen […]

Cadabra Records Presents H. P. LOVECRAFT’s I Notturni Di Yuggoth LP Featuring Music By Fabio Frizzi And Reading By Andrew Leman

Spoken Arts label Cadabra Records is tremendously eager to announce their impending rendition of H. P. LOVECRAFT’s I Notturni Di Yuggoth, now slated for release in September. Decibel Magazine is hosting a stream of the LP’s ‘Night-Gaunts’ as preorders for the record are made available. LOVECRAFT’s I Notturni Di Yuggoth will be issued in a deluxe vinyl-only pressing featuring newly commissioned art by Jeremy Hush. The reading for the title is delivered with incredible poise by stage and screen icon and consistent Cadabra reader Andrew Leman (H. P. LOVECRAFT Historical Society). The haunting music performed by famed composer Fabio Frizzi […]

Album Review: Conjuring Fate – Curse Of The Fallen

CONJURING FATE’s second starts at a deficit, which, after a 2014 EP, an album two years hence, and close to 15 years as a band does not a good impression make. After a lethargic, shiftless – and incredibly drawn-out, might I add – intro, though, ‘Burn The Witch’ springs from the gates, punchy riffs and driving rhythms carrying the vocals of Tommy Daly along, bloody, sweating and tearing its way into your earholes. ‘Voodoo Wrath’ is as energetic, ghosts of SAXON and DIAMOND HEAD, the Gibson/Horner guitar team pulling off tasty dual leads with a seeming effortlessness, but I keep […]

Germany’s KRATER set release date for new EISENWALD album

Eisenwald sets November 15th as the North American release date for the highly anticipated fourth album of Germany’s KRATER, Venenare, on CD, vinyl LP, and limited-edition cassette tape formats. A study in patience and progress, KRATER formed in 2003. In the band’s earliest days – across two demos, two splits, and 2006’s debut album, Das Relikt des Triumphes – the KRATER sound tended more toward pagan black metal, but powerfully so. Come 2008, however, a period of silence and self-reflection followed… When at last those sounds arrived, KRATER had taken on a new form: one partly tied to their earlier […]

NOVEMBERS DOOM premiere not one but two singles from forthcoming album, Nephilim Grove

With Nephilim Grove, NOVEMBERS DOOM celebrate their 30th anniversary in style, building upon the grandiose vision Paul Kuhr has developed throughout the years. As an entity existing in his singular musical universe of doom, death and progressive metal, the band by now dodges all endeavors of categorization. Watch/Share ‘Nephilim Grove’ HERE Watch/Share ‘Petrichor’ HERE Kuhr expands on 2017’s Hamartia in the most daring yet root-conscious way, offering “new colors, new sounds, the same bad-assery. We never set out with a vision other than to just write what makes sense and feels right. It always shows our mood at a given […]

MALOKARPATAN reveal details of third album – to be released by INVICTUS / AJNA on March 20th, 2020

Today, Slovakian metal monks MALOKARPATAN announce details regarding their highly anticipated third album, to be titled Krupinské ohne (The Fires Of Krupina). MALOKARPATAN will be entering Dark Ceremonies Studio, Hostivar, Prague, Czech Republic in October to commence recordings for their third full-length album, Krupinské ohne (The Fires Of Krupina). The album will be released on March 20th, 2020 on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats via Invictus Productions once again in conjunction with their US allies at The Ajna Offensive. The band will be performing a release show with Cult of Fire on March 21st in Prague. In conjunction […]