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: 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 […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: High Desert Queen – Secrets Of The Black Moon

From the get-go with ‘Heads Will Roll’, we are treated to some fine riffing, and a voice so smooth you wonder if the spicy lettuce has kicked in already. Feel that rolling and nodding your head? Yes, let it overtake you. That bass so crisp tickling your taste buds like a fine steak stone-cooked in the desert. This was just what I needed to hear tonight. What a pick me up! HIGH DESERT QUEEN is what you would get if THE SWORD and GOATWHORE had a baby, and I love this baby. I would adopt it and care for it […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: ROTHADÁS – Kopár hant… az alvilág felé

Hungarians ROTHADÁS arrive with their first long player, after 2019’s two-song self-titled release. Taking a page from the DARKTHRONE playbook, one might easily assume the duo to follow their ancestors’ now well-trodden paths to the past, but not so. Whereas the former relies these days on breaking down metal/punk/doom to its most stark, Messrs. Ledeczy and Hanyi don’t seem blind to taking ROTHADÁS death/doom down unexpected trails. In truth, what first drew me to Kopár hant…az alvilág felé was the cover art of four Victorian-era pallbearers transporting a coffin towards an inner-lit crypt amid a grey (I envision), rain-drizzled night. […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Vaelmyst – Secrypts Of The Egochasm

First of all, I was promised angel breasts and skulls. I received neither of these. What a let down. That being said, though I did not receive either, what I did get were some fine riffs. So, what happens when we delve into these secret cry…sorry, secrypts? Well, it could be said you would be treated to some fine finger work, the kind that would have your usual alley stalker in fishnets panting like a dog. Could I imagine myself sitting down with Howard Lovecraft and his delightful cat, banging this out over some sweet Merlot? Absolutely. Might even get […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Venefixion – A Sigh From Below

Simmering since 2013, with a demo, EP, and split release with Belgium’s POSSESSION to its name, the black magic Bretons VENEFIXION now prepare to turn up the heat with debut full-length, A Sigh From Below. After the Obligatory Intro Track ™, ‘Veneficial Upheaval’ gets things rolling, and roll they do. Heads, tanks, freaking boulders chasing Indiana Jones. If it can be rolled, it’s in motion. The one-sheet for ASFB mentioned “swagger”, and it wasn’t wrong, as the riff/rhythm at 2:01-2:24 is the stuff of which blood orgies are made. Bits of early DEATH pepper ‘Of Wolves And Ghosts’, albeit filtered […]

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