Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

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Album Reviews

Album Review: Hatchend – Summer Of ’69

In the world of death/grind, Polish label Selfmadegod Records has long been a bastion of quality output. Bands as far-ranging as AGATHOCLES and ENCOFFINATION call it home, the former firing off multiple split releases per year, the true scatterguns of grind, the latter patient-yet-passionate doom/death. Racing headlong into this fray comes HATCHEND. ‘Shackled Humanity’ pierces right out the gate, feral and uncompromising in its love of speed, speed and speed. What’s truly impressive even from the start is the strength of the riffs themselves, lashing out from the blistering blast, discernable and diabolical at once. With no time for such […]

Music News

New HERETIC Documentary Chronicles Career of Metal Legends

The story of a legendary metal band is finally being told thanks to a new documentary from an up-and-coming filmmaker. Don’t Turn Your Back: The Story Of HERETIC tells the story of the Los Angeles-based band’s humble beginnings, from forming Reverend in 1989 to ultimately disbanding and reforming once again in 2011. This is a story of perseverance through the world of heavy metal. The documentary marks the first-ever film by Tanner Poppitt, guitarist/vocalist for MADROST and host of the Poppitt’s Corner podcast. Poppitt comments on the film, Don’t Turn Your Back: The Story Of HERETIC is my debut film […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Pharmakon – Maggot Mass

After four albums on Sacred Bones Records (also home to releases by artists as disparate as the world-splitting KHANATE, the goth-proto-punk of LATHE OF HEAVEN and ZOLA JESUS’ electro-pop) cometh the Maggot Mass… Worry not, longtime fans of PHARMAKON, when we tell you that she’s experimenting with songs structured in a more “traditional” way. First, you must consider what one who has her past output would consider traditional, then you must put even that aside for this journey. ‘Wither And Warp’ ushers in the consecration, ceremonial in rhythm and intonation, a calling forth? Or to? Skitter-scritchings of insects, chattering, a […]

Music News

Detroit Melodic/Power Thrashers, AMONG THESE ASHES, Premiere Video for ‘Faceless War Machines’

Detroit (MI) – Melodic/Power Thrashers, Among These Ashes, in collaboration with Decibel Magazine, have premiered a lyric video for new single, ‘Faceless War Machines’. The song is taken from the band’s forthcoming new album (title and artwork will be announced at a later date). Watch the video for ‘Faceless War Machines’ AMONG THESE ASHES have completed their sophomore album, which will be announced and released later this year. The lead single, ‘Faceless War Machines’, chronicles the life of conscripted soldiers forced to a doomed fate by their tyrannical overlords. The lyrics are accompanied by the band’s colossal, machine-gun rhythms and […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Atom Driver – Occupants [EP]

By my count Occupants is ATOM DRIVER’s sixth EP, despite the band being around since 2016 with nary a full-length to show for it. Doesn’t matter, though, as the title track immediately jettisons me back to the days of snagging 7” from record stores by bands that fired off a couple-few songs at a time, little sonic pioneers, out into the frontier of independent shops, squats and bookstores. Shades of SNAPCASE’s more accessible work, JAWBREAKER’s Bivouac shove us headlong into ‘Say Anything You Want’, the snarling guitar recalling the abrasion of CAVE IN, but again, filtered through the lens of […]

Music News

CASTLE: Bay Area Occult Doom Trio Cast A ‘Black Spell’ With New Song; Sixth Album Evil Remains Pre-Orders Now Available

Bay Area occult doom trio CASTLE is proud to present the second single, ‘Black Spell’ taken from their upcoming album Evil Remains, due out September 6 via Hammerheart Records. Fall under the ‘Black Spell’ “We’re really excited to share another song from the new album. ‘Black Spell’ is a straight-up, classic metal-inspired barn burner, a throwback to the music I started off playing in the ’80s,” says guitarist/vocalist Mat Davis. “The lyrics deal with the immortal tale of history repeating itself…this time against the backdrop of Egyptology; 5,000 years of doom as told through the eyes of the Great Sphinx. […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Hammerfall – Avenge The Fallen

Never let it be said that I’m not nostalgic. HAMMERFALL had the good (or bad) fortune to come along at a time when metal of all sorts was deep in the throes of an identity crisis, from which it took years to emerge. Still, MANOWAR was on a major label, and BLIND GUARDIAN, STRATOVARIUS and ICED EARTH were holding the banner high, our great and shining hopes for the future. By 1999, however, HAMMERFALL – at least to my ears – sang their creative swan song with the original material on the I Want Out EP. Renegade would follow with […]

Music News

arottenbit: Italian experimental digital/metal act announce new album, You Don’t Know What Chiptune Is

Italian experimental digital/metal act arottenbit is now pleased to reveal that their new album, You Don’t Know What Chiptune Is, is set for release on October 4th 2024 via Time To Kill Records. In celebration, the project is now sharing the new single ‘SPECIMEN_SETTE__(PROBE#1012010)’ arottenbit commented: “Nuns, blastbeat, wrestling, dissonant melodies, satanism, exploding heads, speedcore, blasphemy, hardcore, sludge. Game Boy. In a word: Post-Chiptune. This is my new single. A changing mix of all the influences that a city has to offer in its most violent days. The incredible Sister Margherita plays herself arm in arm with the Italian wrestling […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Yosemite In Black – In Pursuit Of

Based on the scant amount of actual info on Georgia’s YOSEMITE IN BLACK available without either logging into Facebook or following them on Bandcamp, neither of which I’m prepared to do not having heard a note until this moment. It seems like the band probably got its start around the turn of the decade and – again, from what I’ve found – In Pursuit Of is its first album. So, let’s go… The first thing that jumps out in opener ‘Cerberus’ is the mix and production – and when I say “jumps out”, I mean leaps the fuck forward as […]

Music News

DRAGSHOLM sign to Horror Pain Gore Death Productions – Sorrow Hexen set for release September 6th, pre-orders + single live now

Horror Pain Gore Death Productions are set to release the new EP from New Jersey’s Blackened Death Metal desecrators DRAGSHOLM. Sorrow Hexen is up now for pre-order and will be released September 6th on CD and Digital formats along with merch. Horror Pain Gore Death Productions has added DRAGSHOLM to the roster with their 3rd EP, Sorrow Hexen. Hailing from the crypts of Northern New Jersey, DRAGSHOLM was founded in 2017, and in 2022, a full lineup was formed. Sorrow Hexen weaves a tapestry of melodic riffs, thunderous drums, and punishing vocals. The EP’s atmosphere is a blend of the […]

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