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: Wake – Thought Form Descent

‘Infinite Inward’ slowly rolls into our vision over the horizon, an incoming tide lapping at the shore, and it’s clear WAKE is seeking something grander here. Soon enough, though, the softly swirling waters become waves of destructive proportions. Much like HAUNTER’s past few albums, I’ve become interested in what happens when screamo and/or grind bands veer hard left into metallic lands. For both bands, the move has actually made me take notice, as their approach to and way of looking at metal are wildly different than the norm. Encompassing, this opening benefits greatly from a pristine production, accentuating every nuance, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Pharmacist – Flourishing Extremities On Unspoiled Mental Grounds

Where on Earth do I start with this one? How about this…record of the year? The band CARCASS has inspired a ton of other metal bands over the years. There used to be quite a flourishing scene of bands imitating the gruesome grind of their first two albums. And you can say that arguably the entire melodic death metal scene was kickstarted by Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious and its followup Heartwork. I will be honest. Necroticism is in my opinion the greatest death metal album ever recorded. Now we have PHARMACIST and what this band has done is almost beyond […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Cleanbreak – Coming Home

When you take a former QUIET RIOT vocalist, RIOT V’s lead guitarist for the past 2+ decades, and the rhythm section of STRYPER (who I’ve seen a few months back and can attest that the foursome is sounding more energized and robust than in years), something’s bound to happen. But what, pray tell? Well, let’s just see then, shall we? Leading off with a short yet subtle guitar pattern, it doesn’t take long for CLEANBREAK to get ‘Coming Home’ firing on all cylinders, Durbin’s vocals as reliable as ever, and the staccato riffing of Mike Flyntz riding atop the driving […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Seep – Hymns To The Gore

If Gordon Ramsay saw this offering in a pan he would probably stare in amazement, then proceed to say something like “Fuck me, this is raw! It’s heavy! Is that sludge on it!? How raw is that, you useless fucking chef?” But what went unnoticed by Chef Ramsay was this dish was served this way on purpose. His tongue would have sizzled to blackness had he tried to sample it. Yes, it’s heavy. As fuck. Its also as raw as people be screwing these days. What will eventually come forth is a baby bursting forth from bloody pools with howls, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Cosmic Putrefaction – Crepuscular Dirge For The Blessed Ones

What do you do when it’s 5am, you’ve been awake around 10 minutes, and you don’t drink coffee? Apparently for me, you slap on some COSMIC PUTREFACTION to see what the day may bring. I’d like to say I’d heard of this Italian death metal outfit prior, but as it’s simply not the case, come along… Three albums in four years is no easy task, even for a full band. Factor in possible droughts in inspiration and quality of work, and it becomes all the more difficult. Lone gunman G.G. chooses to snatch me from Morpheus’ grip with the angular, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Nebula – Transmission From Mothership Earth

‘Highwired’ has a catchy riff-and-rhythm combination – as catchy as I’ve ever heard from the trio, to be fair. That mix, though. 33 seconds in I cringed at the sheer wrongness of it all. At the 1:12 mark, I was starting to get it, to let a bit of the groove and displacement of vocals, the chitter-chattery guitars into my uncloudy, not-high brain. By 2:30, I was all in, impressed that a band I never really cared for managed to pull something out of its baggie that not only held my attention, but take notice. Bluesy in a slinky sort […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Come To Grief – When The World Dies

GRIEF. Fuckin’ GRIEF. Not to harp on the past or “glory days”, or how things were “better back then”, but Bostonian doom crew GRIEF lived up to its name in sound and action, over the course of 4 albums never once buckling to trends or easy money. And, in a way, this steadfastness is what did them in. Lo, doth 2022 bringeth the debut full-length from COME TO GRIEF, formed by two members from the early days. Alright, let’s strap in. ‘Our End Begins’ bludgeons right out the gate, curmudgeonly, a truncheon of what in any other style of music […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Mournful Congregation – The Exuviae Of Gods – Part I [EP]

Despite being active since 1993 Australia’s MOURNFUL CONGREGATION can, as the slow inevitable march of time – and of its music – never be accused of rushing to its end. That 2018’s The Incubus Of Karma was only its fourth full-length, and now followed by an EP four years hence speaks not so much to the lack of material, but to the great amount of care put into what is released under the MC banner. One of two new tracks presented on The Exuviae Of Gods – Part I, ‘Mountainous Shadows, Cast Through Time’ is ushered in by a near-overbearing […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Municipal Waste – Electrified Brain

Virginia thrash/crossover goofballs MUNICIPAL WASTE have been plying their trade for over two decades, gaining and losing fans, a group of die-hards who love everything this crew breathes, burps or farts in tow, and doing – quite frankly – nothing to my ears and eyes but put a clown face on metal. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not that Tony Foresta & co. aren’t talented, but their output has always seemed, well, contrived. I’m also looking at you, Joel Grind, but that’s for another time. Still and all, I seem beholden to give each album a chance – at […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Haunter – Discarnate Ails

Something happened to San Antonio’s HAUNTER between 2016 debut Thrinodia and Sacramental Death Qualia, which was to follow three years after. What happened was this: a run-of-the-mill screamo trio embraced death metal and became something a bit more in the process. And now, three years after, we’re subjected to Discarnate Ails. Now, from Thrinodia onwards the members were fond of long, extended pieces, but Discarnate Ails (we’ll call it HAUNTER’s second album, but don’t tell them) is made up of three tracks clocking in at an armadillo’s tail over the half-hour mark. I’ve never ever “gotten” screamo, but friends who […]

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