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: Barathrum – Überkill

Ah, the joys of simplicity in a complicated world! Something we can appreciate in just about any walk of life, but especially so when it comes to heavy metal. Finland’s veteran hellraisers BARATHRUM absolutely understand this principle and put into good effect on the smartly titled Überkill. This is pure first wave black metal with virtually no influence from the ’90s Norse brand. That means you expect a lot of catchy early BATHORY/VENOM/HELLHAMMER riffs in all their knuckle-dragging glory. BARATHRUM boasts two bassists and you can easily hear the extra “oomph” that lends to their barbaric tunes. The tracks here […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Dark Tranquillity – Endtime Signals

While Gothenburg stalwarts DARK TRANQUILLITY were there at the start of the whole melodic death metal sound – and, in fact, had a hand in creating it – the band has never really “broke through” to mainstream consciousness on the level of IN FLAMES or AT THE GATES. Factor in that, post-1999’s Projector, DT fell victim to the ‘00s in a very real and recognizable way. While never quite going off the deep end into blatant courting of the Hot Topic set ala Jesper Stromblad & co., there’s no denying that founder Mikael Stanne has been playing it safe for […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Mammoth Caravan – Frostbitten Galaxy

Following 2023’s debut, Ice Cold Oblivion, as well as the I, Megafauna EP released the same year, Little Rock, Arkansas’ MAMMOTH CARAVAN returns with the even more strangely named Frostbitten Galaxy. A jiggering of the lineup has occurred, a former drummer moving to guitars, a new guitarist. Just saying, I’ve been to Little Rock, and ain’t a single thing ice cold or frostbitten about the weather there at any point of the year. We’re talking galaxies here, though, folks, so… Opener ‘Absolute Zero’ slips in, taking its time getting where it’s hopefully going, a bed of synths beneath a soft, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Black Sites – The Promised Land?

Roughly three years after Untrue, BLACK SITES returns with fourth album, The Promised Land? Don’t let the fact that the band’s now trimmed to a trio worry you, as opener, ‘Descent’ sets the standard, robust and ready, the lyric “Cometh now the punishment for sins of yesterday / for those who lie, how many times betrayed?” laying a dark tone. Founding guitarist/vocalist Mark Sugar’s vocal range is firmly entrenched in the mid-range, so those in search of vocal gymnastics or histrionics may initially be put off, but for fans of equally melodic bands such as SOUND & SHAPE and Parallels […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Wolfbrigade – Life Knife Death

Who needs coffee and energy drinks when WOLFBRIGADE is around? Hell, who needs cocaine?! This long running Swedish band is bone-breaking speed and power in concentrated music form. I was kinda shocked when I found out their new album would be on Metal Blade. I’m glad they’re on one of the bigger metal labels, but for a band with deep roots in the crusty Swedish punk scene, it’s a strange fit. Strange or no, they haven’t toned down one iota for this record. The press compares them to DISCHARGE, MOTÖRHEAD and old ENTOMBED, and that really hits the nail smack […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Orange Goblin – Science, Not Fiction

On its tenth album, ORANGE GOBLIN remains the same as they’ve always been; fun and entertaining to listen to in the short run, but lacking the extra ingredient necessary to get them over the hump into the next level. Bands and albums like this are always the hardest to review, as they are not bad by any stretch, but just not really memorable. The GOBLIN sound remains true to itself here, a greasy kind of riff rock like MOTÖRHEAD meets MONSTER MAGNET. I will say this – they really make the attempt to give every song its own personality here. […]

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