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: Temple Of Void – Summoning The Slayer

Now four albums deep into its nearly ten-year existence, Michigan’s TEMPLE OF VOID returns with Summoning The Slayer. Lumbering and lurking, ‘Behind The Eye’ stalks forth from shadow, basic, almost Cro-Magnon in its main chord progression, but “basic” in the style of BOLT THROWER and early BENEDICTION, straightforward. No muss, no fuss, just head-down and advancing destruction. ‘Deathtouch’ makes no secret of its melody, oppressively forlorn in the verses ala the burgeoning days of The Peaceville Three, and – as their forefathers – with a chorus that confirms that not only can such a sub-genre as death/doom exist, but can […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Likheim – Alt Skal Svinne Hen… [EP]

Alt Skal Svinne Hen… may be LIKHEIM’s first shot across the bow when it comes to black metal, but the project’s been incubating for around two decades, so let’s strip all excuses such as “It’s the first recording” and “Pretty good try” away, shall we? Helmsman and vocalist Gretn has had plenty of time to craft this EP into what he wishes, to mold it to his vision of perfect form, so no one to laud or blame but himself should things go awry. The title track reeks with the stench of mid/late ‘90s GORGOROTH, Gretn’s vocals reminiscent of Gaahl’s […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Woorms – Fatalismo

Comin’ in hot after last year’s sprawling and utterly unanticipated split with THE GRASSHOPPER LIES HEAVY – where WOORMS’ 20+-minute ‘Aureola Borealis’ clocked in at half the playing time of the band’s albums – the Louisiana sludge dukes return post-haste with Fatalismo. Kicking up dust from the start, an even more rough and ready early CLUTCH, but mixed with the down-home dirt of MULE and BRUTAL JUICE, ‘Seizure Salad’ triumphs while ‘Quiet As Isaac’ is less upfront, more subtle. Yes, ladies and germs, the syrup is thick and sticky sweet here, basslines coated in molasses and honeysuckle vines, the groove […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Sacrilega – The Arcana Spear

When you tell me there’s a new black metal band’s debut clogging up my inbox, I can promise you I’m probably not as thrilled as you’re acting as if I should be. Now, don’t misunderstand; I love black metal as a genre, it’s just that I’m also largely content to move within the realms of the doomed, so it takes a bit to pique my interest. Now, tell me this same band has within its ranks the mighty Paulus Kressman from the Canadian prairie’s RITES OF THY DEGRINGOLADE, and I’m at least giving SACRILEGA a chance. Far from a one-man […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Demiricous – Chaotic Lethal

Returning from well over a decade of silence isn’t easy for any band, much less one that never really “made it” in the first place. After two well-received albums of NWOAHM-styled death-influenced blue collar thrash on Metal Blade in the mid-‘00s, DEMIRICOUS kind of just…poof!…faded. So, hearing of their return, I had to at least see if the years had been kind. Chaotic Lethal begins with ‘Unconditional Hate’, a rumbling, glitchy (thankfully abbreviated) intro with sparse piano in the background before absolutely annihilating, leads squealing like Deliverance and Lord Of The Flies had a baby and it was Ben Parrish […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: VIMUR – Transcendental Violence

Once again showing conclusively that the best black metal doesn’t have to come from a frosty fjord or frozen tundra, VIMUR from Atlanta, Georgia unleash a beast of an album with Transcendental Violence. I enjoyed their previous work, Triumphant Master Of Fates, but this trumps it in just about every way. That is immediately apparent with ‘Aeonic Upheaval’ and man, oh man, does this SOB slam into your head like a sledgehammer. Combining the speed and majesty of “old” IMMORTAL with the ferocity of a MARDUK or GORGOROTH in full flow, this is a monster of power riffing that has […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: MEIN KOPF IST EIN BRUTALER ORT – Ton Steine Sterben

For a band who’s been around for a decade as of this year, to be referred to as “the German LAMB OF GOD” is likely not as flattering as one would think. After ten full years, shouldn’t MEIN KOPF IST EIN BRUTALER ORT (“My Head Is A Brutal Place”, for those who care) have at least taken steps towards developing its own sound? Its own identity? Now I understand full well that bands aren’t always to blame for their PR info, and sometimes such veers from slight exaggeration to all out untruth, but gotta shift them units, right? And in […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Ufomammut – Fenice

When a band eight albums deep into a storied career has not only the honesty to look itself in the mirror and admit it doesn’t like what it sees but the boldness to admit such to its fans, that counts for something. And that’s exactly what UFOMAMMUT did during its thankfully brief hiatus over 2020. Some even wondered if there would be another album. Well, founders Urlo and Poia have returned, new drummer Levre in tow, and Fenice is the result. ‘Dust’ begins, distant waves, heartbeat pulse of rhythm, electronic blips, a band coming back from coma/hibernation, let us say. […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Skull Fist – Paid In Full

Now on its fourth LP, Toronto’s SKULL FIST are true believers in the timelessness of heavy metal as it was in what so many of us geezers nostalgically refer to as “the glory days”, “back when…” or “before all this…”. The title track kicks off with all the energy of MTV-era GREAT WHITE and half the power, straight from that time when major labels were throwing heaps of cash at anything with a cucumber in its pants and a can of hairspray in a holster. Now don’t get me wrong, vocalist/guitarist Zach Slaughter has some pipes. It’s just that he’s […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: ABBATH – Dread Reaver

Black metal’s Uncle Buck returns to action and I’m not quite sure what to make of Dread Reaver. Yes, a lot of the ABBATH (and by way of osmosis, IMMORTAL) trademarks are here, but this has a different sound and approach than the man’s last two solo efforts. For one thing, the sound is rawer…a lot rawer. That’s not always a bad thing, to be sure, but the precision of previous ABBATH and also the last few IMMORTAL records is not here. Everything sounds a lot looser, almost like jamming in the rehearsal room, and the riffs don’t stick in […]

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