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: Gates To Hell – Death Comes To All

Of all the new bands trying to cash in on the brutal death/hardcore mash-up trend, this is the worst I’ve heard so far. I’m appalled a record of this low quality is on Nuclear Blast. I know they sign some bad bands to jump on bandwagons, but this is bad right down to the production quality and playing ability. It makes SANGUISUGABOGG and BONGINATOR look like ATHEIST. I like death metal and hardcore when they are primitive and to the point. This is DUMB, not primitive…an onslaught of uninteresting riffs, lobotomized breakdowns that have been done over and over for […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Rokets – Bad Choices

There’s just something about dirty Scandinavian rock ‘n’ roll. From forefathers HANOI ROCKS to BACKYARD BABIES to countless others, that Sunset Boulevard sound has been mangled and mutated by sheer force of will into something other – something independent of its heritage, created without the media hype engine so treasured and fickle here in the good ol’ US of A. Entering the ring now is ROKETS, with their third attempt at a knockout, Bad Choices. ‘Bad Choices’ gets down to bidness quick and (im)proper, and there’s something of CRANK COUNTY DAREDEVILS and LEGENDARY SHACK SHAKERS in the guitar tone and […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: The Lord Weird Slough Feg – Traveller Supplement 1: The Ephemeral Glades [EP]

THE LORD WEIRD SLOUGH FEG is one of the few bands carrying high the flame of traditional heavy metal. There, I said it. Add in an equally gonzo dose of love for THIN LIZZY in the guitar tone, and everything from Greek and Celtic mythology to primate overthrow to classic sci-fi to a wee band of shoulda-made-it-bigger-but-never-dids called HORSLIPS, and we got ourselves a keeper! After releasing three wallopers leading up to and ushering in the new millennium, Cap’n Scalzi hunkered down for a bit, only to return with what some would say is their benchmark album, Traveller. Now, 22 […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Iggor Cavalera / Shane Embury – ‘Neon Gods’ / ‘Own Your Darkness’

Do you even remember 1990? Cold Spring Records does and, almost from birth, it became a place to go for industrial, ambient, and outsider electronica when the dancey-dance of MY LIFE WITH THE THRILL KILL KULT and its ilk just wasn’t gonna cut it for the pervading sense of grime and decay that swam in the undercurrent of Generation X. EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN and SKINNY PUPPY were there, and others, sure. But that the label has stayed true to its original path for over three decades makes it one of “those” labels, evermore a rarity; the kind where – even if […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Caustic Phlegm – Purulent Apocalypse

It’s no secret that I’m a lover of all that is icky, repulsive and sickening when it comes to metal. I regard most instances of “sick” death metal as a challenge. One thing I insist on, though: a song can be grisly but it still has to be a SONG. As long as I can detect an interesting structure, there’s no limit to how heavy I can go. And I know I’m not the only one to feel this way. CAUSTIC PHLEGM is a one-man wrecking crew helmed by a UK guy named Evan Vasilakos and he wants to create […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Negative 13 – Recover What You Can

‘The Desolate’ does the rare thing that intros actually do, which is set the listener up for what’s in store. In this case, a plodding rumble/riff join forces to tumble us headlong into the SIXTY WATT SHAMAN-ic swinging groove of ‘Casket Trail’ {Scott] Fisher retains the hardcore-tinged snarl that’s suited him well as far back as the NEGATIVE THEORY days, and the band has more than a bit of My War-era BLACK FLAG in its sense of the disjointed when it comes to putting a song together, then nearly wrecking the whole thing so as to make it seem it’s […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Slow Burn Drifters – Golden

Any PR one-sheet that compares its subject to TINDERSTICKS immediately has my interest, so let’s just get that out of the way. Formed as the wave of what passed for “alternative rock” was reaching its crest in 1991, the Brits were an anomaly in the same way (though not in the same style) as THE AFGHAN WHIGS, more akin at times to explorations of soul music or late ‘60s R&B than the “loud-for-loud’s-sake” bands of the time. But this isn’t a TINDERSTICKS review, so let’s throw that line of thought on the fire…for now. Though 12 albums deep into his […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Sanhedrin – Heat Lightning

After three absolute bangers in the hard rock / trad-metal field (you want some elitism? Any diehard MANILLA ROAD fan will give the most panda-painted supporter of [Insert Black Metal Band Name Here] a run for their money when it comes to what is or is not Metal, SANHEDRIN returns with Heat Lightning. Salivating with anticipation, ‘Blind Wolf’ begins, soon thrusting into a choppy, syncopated machine, Erica’s [Stoltz, vocals/bass] as clear yet fierce as ever. Her tone may not be as road-raggedly “queen of the mountaintop” as Doro Pesch, nor as operatically weak-livered as the corseted “symphonic” dame of the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Karla Kvlt – Thunderhunter

This German power trio keeps it in the family on their debut record. Markus E. Lipka of the cult band EISENVATER is the Dad of group, holding down guitar duties, while his son Johann Wientjes pounds away on the skins and daughter-in-law Teresa Curtens handles bass and lead vocals. That must certainly make for some unique dynamics in the studio. KARLA KVLT’s sound is also unique and takes some time to appreciate. I really know little of EISENVATER so I can’t say how much KK sounds like that band. If I had to describe KARLA KVLT briefly, I’d say it’s […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Scour – Gold

In the wake of the FANTERA tribute arrival, Phil cranks up his sputtering engine once more. While VIKING CROWN, PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS, and pretty much the whole raft of rats on the ever-sinking ship that seems to be the U.S.S. Anselmo’s vocal range have blown chunks to varying degrees, the output from SCOUR so far has been solid enough and is one of the only projects involving P.A. – aside from DOWN and SUPERJOINT RITUAL – where it felt/feels more like a band than Ol’ Camoshorts himself preening before a mirror with a cast of blurred and […]

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