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: Shadow People – Batom Rouge / Washing In Soap Opera

There are few terms that spark intrigue in my life, but you throw a mixture such as “sludge punk” my way, and my ears at least have to hear what the fuss is about. The “fuss”, in this case, is Louisiana’s SHADOW PEOPLE. Collecting its two EPS released last year, Batom Rouge / Washing In Soap Opera, ‘Six Weeks’ kicks off the proceedings, all fuzz, and drunken stumbling, the first minute coming off like what happens live when the band isn’t sure what song they were going to play next, and I love that feeling of spontaneity. Once it gets […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Stormtide – A Throne Of Hollow Fire

As much as I dread intros as a whole, ‘A Valley Of Ashes’ captivates, and – for the uninitiated – draws in, which is exactly a band wants to happen when inviting new ears. Right out the gate more symphonic in execution than I was expecting, ‘A Throne Of Hollow Fire’ blends keys, blessedly lower-register vocals and sections that grasp mightily for the epic. It does seem the mix is a bit “all over the place”, and the keys have a tendency to bury the guitars when the latter isn’t in solo mode, but when Richens and Bodnarr do get […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Plague Weaver – Ascendant Blasphemy

PLAGUE WEAVER is an ambitious outfit that tries to unite lots of disparate styles of extreme metal, but is not quite able to pull off what they’re looking for. It’s a two man outfit that has an “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to death and black metal. They have the playing ability for sure, but the songwriting is kind of erratic and results in songs that are good in some parts but rather tedious in others. The first song ‘Nothing Is Sacred’ has a kind of Greek black metal vibe in the style of ROTTING CHRIST and VARATHRON going […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Reaper – The Atonality Of Flesh

As much I love some good ol’ (or new) caustic D-beat, for maximum enjoyment, the album needs to be short of length – we’re talking half-hour, tops – and long on attitude. Anything over that magical 30 minutes, and my attention quickly wanes, largely because the band’s begun to recycle its own ideas, and – due to the limitations of the style, maybe – it’s all just monotonous. Not so with Sweden’s REAPER, the duo returning with 2021’s The Atonality Of Flesh, if anything more fierce and, yes, varied than the Unholy Nordic Noise debut of 2019. MIDNIGHT is a […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Holy Mother – Face This Burn

HOLY MOTHER and their charismatic singer, Mike Tirelli, have been cranking out the metal since the early ’90s. This is another one of those bands like VICIOUS RUMORS or LEATHERWOLF that has all the tools but just can’t crack the glass ceiling. I can’t give a “one size fits all” description of the kind of metal HOLY MOTHER plays because they can almost play it all. Face This Burn has got elements of PRIEST/DIO/MAIDEN classic metal, QUEENSRYCHE progression, the heavier side of hair metal and even touches of grunge and nu-metal if you dig hard enough. The common denominator of […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Necropanther – In Depths We Sleep [EP]

As a songwriter (term used loosely…very, very loosely), that Colorado’s NECROPANTHER has managed to craft three albums that each stay within the framework of metal, but to embrace the melody inherent in the genre, and add shades to the colors of an established palette is impressive. It’s harder than you think, I assure you. Between albums, the quartet has this quirky habit of releasing EPs/Singles written entirely by a single member, with the remainder of the band contributing to the recording. Worry not, this is no KISS solo album papier-mâché pastiche of creativity, and this time around the honor/work fell […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Skeleton – Ordainment Of Divinity [EP]

After a bucketful of EPs, compilations, a live album and a full length debut (2020’s Skeleton, natch), the Austin, TX hardcore-cum-black-cum-thrash trio (also SKELETON) unleashes a peepshow booth’s-worth of grime in the less than 15 minutes of Ordainment Of Divinity. I suppose one could refer to ‘Skeleton – Opening Rites’ as an intro, but, as it’s the second-longest track on the damned EP, it seems rather cheapening. Granted, what we’re given is marching, and also granted, I normally loathe the fuck out of me an intro, but the mental image this rhythmic tread gave me is of films such as […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Sagenland – Oale Groond

Home is where the heart is, even if the heart is black. SAGENLAND is part of that breed of black/folk metal that is tied to a particular place. In this case, it is the Eastern part of Holland near the town of Twente. The gentlemen of SAGENLAND are very close to their homeland, and have dedicated their music to it. On further inspection, I find the Twente area to be a gentle pastoral place of modest fields, forests and rivers, not too different from my own home in Northern Illinois. That automatically makes me more kindly disposed to them. It’s […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Ewigkeit – Depopulate [EP]

EWIGKEIT’s been a lot of things over its two decades plus, but predictable has never been one. Taking a break from his apparent goal of reimagining his early works album by album, Depopulate is the second EP of new work released by one Mr. Fog since September and – as expected – it’s a step to the side of his last. Where XXIII was an incorporation of EWIGKEIT’s hazed out/dazed out/phased out ‘70s worship, Depopulate centers around various conspiracy “theories” and the evils (both real and too-real-to-be-imagined) regarding pharmaceutical giants, the sword of biotech, and all who live on what […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Nopes – Djork

Listening to Djork is like getting bitchslapped by that chick with a nose ring and shaved scalp that’s still kind of hot anyway. It’ll wake you up in a hurry, but confuse you at the same time. NOPES are described as a punk rock band from Oakland, CA, but I think there’s a bit more to them than that simple description. Punk is there for sure, but also tones of that screechy, skronky noise rock of the early ’90s, and even a dose of weirdness reminiscent of early VOIVOD. It’s loose, super raw, abrasive and sloppy, kind of like MC5 […]

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