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: Nocturnal Wanderer – Gift Of The Night

When you think of old school black metal you think of VENOM, BATHORY, MAYHEM, BURZUM…you know. If you were to say to me that NOCTURNAL WANDERER “captures the spirit of beginning days of black metal” I’d be curious, but doubtful. However, this solo project pulls it off. It’s like going back in time. I’m going to be honest, I’ve never heard of NOCTURNAL WANDERER until now, but I like what I hear, which is headbanging goodness – oldschool goodness. Black metal in its infancy, yet not so. Mellowing out here and there gives it a bonus too in my book. […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Apostle Of Solitude – Until The Darkness Goes

Indiana’s APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE, on the outside, ticks all the boxes for what should make a great doom band. Decent cover art (if we forget the abysmal Last Sunrise of 2010 – which I can’t), they’ve been at it for well over ten years, so the lineup should be locked and loaded, and and and the band contains two members of the much-revered THE GATES OF SLUMBER… So, why doesn’t it work? The guitar tone grates from the start, and not in a good way. As a doom worshiper since the mid-late ‘80s, in all its forms, I can take […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Old Man Wizard – Kill Your Servants Quietly

First of all this isn’t 06/06/06, cut the cringy “Look how anti-God we are.” crap already. Seriously, all views and beliefs aside, it’s not even a dead horse anymore. What we have is something so overdone and past the point of bludgeoning to death there aren’t even atoms left. Take a few swings at Islam, take a few swings at Hinduism or Judaism. The lyrics here aren’t even that profound. Okay, now we’ve gotten through that, let’s carry on with the rest of this shit show. I got to the third track, ‘God Is Your Friend’, and I was done. […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Funeral Chant – Dawn Of Annihilation

Nary an intro or elongated buildup found on Dawn Of Annihilation, for none are needed! ‘Terrorspawn’ screams from the speakers guitars like so many mistles streaking across the sky, underpinned by the artillery of bass and drum, Voidbringer’s Angelripper/Araya-born commands barked sharp and undeniable across the field of battle. This is the sort of black/death hybrid upon which I thrive, and is needed after a day of work, perfect for a mental purge. Mind, not that all is Neanderthalic here, ‘Oneiric Perversion’ shot through with blatantly intricate passages, managing not to lose a blood drop of brutality in the process. […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Worm – Foreverglade

From the Florida swamps comes WORM. I’m kinda partial to all things wormy. These guys have a logo that looks like an explosive diarrhea incident, but their sound is extremely cool and unique. It’s very icky sounding death/doom, but mixed with curious touches like psychedelic guitar freakouts, cavernous organ and synth detours…even some Gregorian chants. A name that comes to mind in comparison is Australia’s DISEMBOWELMENT, but these guys are more purely sick. Six tracks here, ranging from three and a half minutes to an 11 minute plus Magnum Opus. The title track starts with the twangy minor key guitar […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: CONTRITION – Broken Mortal Coil

Sometimes I miss the days of buying albums blind because you had no choice, when often the only way you had of knowing who was in a new band was if there’d been a magazine article you stumbled across or the most reliable way, word of mouth. Looking at the lineup of Chicago’s CONTRITION, the now-familiar “current and former members of” tagline bearing such as NOVEMBERS DOOM, NACHTMYSTIUM, COBALT, YAKUZA and so forth, you almost feel set up for a fall. Can such a strange blend deliver? Haphazard, grotty and sordid in that basest, best of ways, ‘Diluted’ is unconcerned […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Thyrfing – Vanagandr

My first exposure to THYRFING was around 2008 with Farsotstider. I loved it, but since then I had not delved too deeply, a song here and there. Vanagandr is my first full album since, and it was as much of an experience now as it was then. Vanagandr starts off hard hitting, as any Viking metal album should, with those sick riffs, choirs of Valkyries, and then those Viking blackened growls. ‘Dop dem I eld’ is the opener well chosen, the storm before the calm before the even bigger storm. Those headbanging riffs and backing keys will have you headbanging […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: HATE – Rugia

Poland’s HATE has been at it for over three decades now, in many incarnations, but always helmed by Adam “The First Sinner” Buszko, so, to put it bluntly, the praise or blame has always rested on his shoulders when it comes to the quality of the death/black outfit. For myself, HATE has sort of just been “there”, no great opinion one way or the other, in that I can see why someone may enjoy it, but I’ve also never been in the mood for the band specifically. Featuring a new rhythm section (again), and joined once more by Domin, who’s […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: KK’S Priest – Sermons Of The Sinner

I probably don’t need to go over K.K. Downing’s history for anybody reading this review. Chances are you know just as much as I do, although it’s worth noting that K.K.’s history with JUDAS PRIEST goes all the way back to 1969. I’m sure you also know that, with Glenn Tipton, he was part of the guitar duo that revolutionized the concept of heavy metal and set the bar for just about every other band in the genre. It’s already been 10 years since Ken left PRIEST. I’d imagine the metal fire has been smoldering in him for most of […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Wormwitch – Wolf Hex

WORMWITCH has been at it awhile, and now returns for the all-important third album. Reviews have been kind to the Vancouver quartet thus far, so all that remains is the question “Did the band deliver?”. After the intro of ‘Lunar Maniac’ wanders about aimlessly for 1:00 (as most intros are wont to do), the laughably-titled ‘Canadian Denim Mountain Attack’, which manages in one clumsy, fell swoop to poorly appropriate both DARKTHRONE’s ‘Canadian Metal’ and ‘Hiking Metal Punks’, both of which leave a bag of reindeer shit on WORMWITCH’s suburbanite doorstep. And if you thought the song was any better, it’s […]

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