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: Eight Bells – Legacy Of Ruin

Released parallel to the compiling of its prior works, the aptly-titled Histories 2010-2016, EIGHT BELLS delivers its third long-player, Legacy Of Ruin on some expectant ears. Well, these, at least. Sonically I’ve always found Melynda Jackson & co. not-so-distant cousins to the now-defunct SUBROSA, albeit more diverse in their palette. Where the former came from the dark heart of folk, EIGHT BELLS treads more in the realms of doom, all the while tossing shovelfuls of hard prog ala POPOL VUH, the devilish dirge of JACULA and orbit-twisting YOB… All evidenced splendidly on opener ‘Destroyer’, which had me reaching for my […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Buňuel – Killers Like Us

Luis Buňuel was a film-maker who liked to shock and surprise. This is the guy we have to thank for images of eyeballs being slashed by razor blades and dead donkeys lying on top of pianos. It seems fitting that he lend his name to this noise rock project full of uneasy screams, mutters and groans, both human and instrumental. Noise rock is something I’ve found myself gradually getting into in recent years, but boy, BUÑUEL push things to limits even I find hard to take. It’s an international combo featuring Eugene Robinson of OXBOW fame on lead vocals. Never […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Skumstrike – Deadly Intrusions

Ah, Quebec! Home of Mononc’ Serge, black metal, Poutine, black metal, and a little band we all know and had better respect, VOIVOD. Oh, and GORGUTS. Oh, and…now SKUMSTRIKE! Beginning with the soft, soothing intro track as all albums should, ‘Caustic Poison’ comforts and gives peace and if you believe that, stop reading, this fuck is not for you! Surprisingly battle-hardened despite having only a demo and 3 EPs under its bullet belt, the duo of ZS and LA [drums, vocals and string bedevilment respectively] go straight for the balls on ‘Blood Red Vision’, a slaughter-stomp if ever there was […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: BA’A – Egregore

A relative new arrival to black metal, France’s BA’A stirred up things a bit with 2020’s Deus qui non mentitur, the debut embracing the overarching aspects of the genre without seeming beholden to tradition to the point of obstinance. Now don’t get me wrong, I can fully respect a BOLT THROWER-esque refusal to move either “forward” or “backward” sonically, it’s just that to have put up such an image for BA’A – especially given the pedigree of its members – would’ve seemed dishonest. And thus, credit where due. Not having nearly enough French to even begin deciphering Egregore lyrically, I’ll […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Midnight – Let There Be Witchery

There aren’t many good things to come out of the Buckeye State. As a Michigander there are the obvious “sportsball” rivalries, but mainly Ohio’s just something to avoid driving through on your way to get anywhere else. Don’t wanna “get any on ya” or anything. And yet, this is where the nasty blackthrashspeed of founder and sole member Athenar has thriven for nearly two decades now. Thus, I’ve promised myself this review will only take as long to write as a listen through his fifth under the black banner of MIDNIGHT. Thoughts of some piss-poor “intro” get flushed septic-ward once […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Dark Meditation – Polluted Temples

With a PR sheet name-dropping everyone from VENOM to PRIEST to DANZIG and mentioning the members’ previous “punk ethos” Polluted Temples could’ve gone either way. Shiver-inducing images of early ‘00s CRADLE OF FILTH or any DANZIG after III: How The Gods Kill plagued my mind, but on a ridiculous bright and sunny Monday morning in February, 2022, I gathered my courage and… After the mercifully short ‘Prelude’, ‘Babalon.Money.Magick’ is…oh, yes, now I see where the DANZIG influence comes from, but it’s not even good DANZIG, instead sloughing forward with all the energy of a greasy devilock and half the passion. […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: HEBOSAGIL – Yössä

When a band morphs from a pretty much by-the-numbers speed/thrash act into a strange hydra of noise rock, abusive sludge and identifiably Scandinavian punk, it’s a chance taken; but when the change happens over the course of nearly two decades – and seems natural – it’s downright impressive. Think about it. Do any of our precious 2nd wave black metal bands sound the same as they did in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s? Well, there you have it. So, though the core ethics/beliefs may not have changed, through age and experience they have developed, much like the sound of HEBOSAGIL on […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Lost Tribes Of The Moon – Chapter II: Tales Of Strife, Destiny, And Despair

The title is quite a mouthful, isn’t it? Well, that sets the table pretty well for the second album by this Milwaukee band, because the whole damn thing just drags on and on and on… I thought the first effort from these guys was pretty promising. Pick that up if you can find it. Skip this one. If it was a book, it would desperately need an editor. It’s the musical equivalent of a 900 page book about the romance of a mailman. LOST TRIBES OF THE MOON certainly have talent…there are several passages scattered throughout that prove it. But […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Firebreather – Dwell In The Fog

In which Gothenburg stoner/doom merchants FIREBREATHER return with their all-important third album, Dwell In The Fog, hopefully ready to kick ass and take names. Given their previous album titles of Firebreather and Under A Blood Moon, and that both were solid efforts in their own right (rite?), methinks there may be something of the elemental in the band, what with fog now making an appearance. Opener ‘Kiss Of Your Blade’ flicks open the album, rusty, nicked and dry-blood-covered, no trendy desert or dune-buggy surfboard rawk ala FU MANCHU here, the rumble more akin to METH DRINKER and KRUGER. Flowing ‘n’ […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Immolation – Acts Of God

Where does IMMOLATION rank in the list of American death metal bands? Right up at the top, I would say. They passed the likes of MORBID ANGEL and DEICIDE a long time ago…way more consistent. Compared to CANNIBAL CORPSE? Hmmm, that’s a tough one, because the CANNIBALS are masters of consistency themselves. But I give the nod to IMMOLATION because the music seems to have a bit more depth to it, and a special kind of darkness that IMMOLATION alone has mastered. Acts Of God continues in the style of the most recent albums, Atonement and Kingdom Of Conspiracy. The […]

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