Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Album Reviews

ALBUM REVIEW RATING SCALE:
**Please note that this rating scale serves as a reference for albums reviewed prior to 2023.
Numbered ratings will not be added going forward, in hopes that the writer’s impression of the work will suffice.
It will have to.** 

6 – Rarely bestowed. An honor reserved for undeniable classics (or those that should be). The Apex Predator.
5 – Impressive.
4 – Worthy of special recognition.
3 – A solid effort.
2 – The participation trophy.
1 – These are the albums that the 2s beat up on the way home from school.
0 – A waste of both our time and yours.

Album Reviews

Album Review: The Barbarians Of California – Megatons

I went outside my comfort zone with this one and gotta say, the result is much more entertaining than I thought it would be. THE BARBARIANS OF CALIFORNIA are described as “West Coast hardcore” but there’s more to them than that. I always preferred the street-tough NYHC to the poppier Orange County stuff, but these guys are a trip. Yes, there’s some of that catchy WCHC punk in Megatons but they toss in a lot of other influences. Not to mention that this record can be as heavy as the title indicates. This is good goofy fun and not to […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Blood Of The Earth – Beneath A Sky That Breaks [EP]

Tampa’s BLOOD OF THE EARTH returns two years after its initial and respectable outing …And The Pillars Shook with a second EP, Beneath A Sky That Breaks. The first noticeable change from …Pillars is the lineup augmentation courtesy vocalist J. Costa, also of THY WILL BE DONE. While the debut was interesting, its instrumental path akin to that of, say, a heavier PELICAN or more ragamuffin AMENRA, Costa’s presence here adds to the already sturdy weight crafted by musicians Jeff and Katie Golden. The title track immediately conjures sonic thunder, vocal lightning hurled forth from the summit of Mount Doom […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Wharflurch – Mycodeath And Rebirth In The Outer Clusters

Slime-drenched and foul, the fetid fungal fiends of WHARFLURCH were splat forth in 2019, sent to belch forth their tale down the earholes of pitiful humanity. Regrettably, forces in and beyond their control resulted in banishment to from whence they came shortly after Psychedelic Realms Ov Hell of 2021. Months followed, years – aeons in the time of a band – accumulated until, reformed, the limbs of this creature that is WHARFLURCH, severed and sewn back in another configuration have again arrived from its planet of pus to bring us Mycodeath And Rebirth In The Outer Clusters. ‘Death Toll Horror’ […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Lord Gryphus – Summoning The King Of Death

The ‘90s were both a wonderous and tragic time for brutal death metal. On the one hand, bands such as GORGUTS, IMMOLATION and ENTOMBED were carving literal canyons in the earth in their pangs to twist this intentionally misshapen toddler that was Death Metal into an even more malformed being. And on the other, bands whose names aren’t deserving of mention were playing Pick Your Bandwagon with whatever sound seemed to shift the most units, and usually getting screwed over by their record labels to make room for the miasma of dung that was to be 1994 or so and […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Windswept – A Sign Of The Cloven Hoof

WINDSWEPT came first to our ears through headphones and computers. During this first listen and maiden voyage the production felt tall, near toweryng, and a little teetery, like it could topple any moment. The vocals felt more technique than raw emotion, but the riffs were solid and the beats as well. Upon second listen, and a following third, now on a proper stereo – A Sign Of The Cloven Hoof did not tremble, it did not topple upon us. Nor did the vocals disrupt but felt genuinely rife with blasphemy. Now familiar, almost an olde friend, this album became a […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Critical Defiance – Rivers Of Blood

From Brazil’s VULCANO and MX, as well as PENTAGRAM (Chile), There’s just something about South American thrash that brings a fire and intensity rivalling mid-‘80s Germany in raw passion and speed. After three full lengths on Unspeakable Axe Records, Chile’s CRITICAL DEFIANCE returns under the banner of Dying Victims Productions with Rivers Of Blood. Alright, now this is what I’m talking about. Even had I never heard the quintet, they would already have earned points from me for ‘Red Omen’. Don’t call it an “intro” in the same sense of disjointed, sound-effect mucking about, or some attempt at sonically recreating […]

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 […]

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”) […]

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