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: Power Paladin – With The Magic Of Windfyre Steel

Sometimes you just know. And with even a cursory glance at the cover art for With The Magic Of Windfyre Steel, it’s crystal clear what Iceland’s POWER PALADIN is here to do. Betcha there’s not even a death metal riff within a mile of this shit. Takes me back to when you could look at an album cover, song titles – if you were lucky a band photo on the back of the record – and lay good odds on what you’d find inside. POWER PALADIN gets right down to business with ‘Kraven The Hunter’, ghosts pre-Final Countdown EUROPE and […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Great American Ghost – Torture World [EP]

I’ve gotta confess, I’ a sucker for the EP format. Bands can either provide a taste of what’s to come, bust out a few cover versions, or stretch themselves into areas they wouldn’t feel comfortable with in an album format. Given our current global situation, the past year plus has given cause for many bands to pause and reflect on what it means to continue on, or if they can even financially/emotionally manage to do so. And, not for nothing, some brilliant art in all forms has been born from that reflection. GREAT AMERICAN GHOST has taken that time, looked […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Gaahls Wyrd – The Humming Mountain

Black metal thrives on controversy, whether intentionally created by the artists/bands themselves or a by-product of media hype. In that realm, few have lived that life to the degree of Gaahl. I don’t need to rehash, and won’t as a cursory web search can do that for those interested. GAAHLS WYRD’s debut album in 2019 was a chance for Gaahl (the man) to move away from Gaahl (the media/meme fodder) and simply record as an artist with like-minded comrades – and it succeeded. 2021 brings The Humming Mountain, a self-described “mini-album” that swims in the pre-history first explored on GastiR […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Wombbath – Agma

Sweden’s WOMBBATH were there in the gory glory days of almost my favorite style of death metal. Gimme an HM-2 and I’m at least giving your band a chance. A demo, EP, split, you know the drill, and then 1993’s Internal Caustic Torments showed some promise…and then, the aptly-named Lavatory EP flushed all the gains of before right on down. It’s really only since 2015 that the band has come into its own, of a sort, and an argument could be made that the hiatus was simply a case of “right band, wrong time”. Clocking in at over 70 minutes […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Death SS – Ten

Italy’s DEATH SS have been haunting the European metal scene for 40 years and have always had a cult following, but somehow I’ve never investigated them very deeply, which is strange considering my usual love any mix of horror and metal, which these guys embody. Maybe 2021 is the time for me to venture into their crypt. I think some sort of sixth sense kept me out of DEATH SS’ path all these years. Not only do they look like they should be working at the local cut-rate Jaycees haunted house, but their music is about as sinister and underground […]

Album Reviews

Album Review – Shield Of Wings – Unfinished

Alright, first off, it’s not the late ‘90s anymore, or had you not noticed? SHIELD OF WINGS apparently hasn’t. The Illinois fivesome features not one but two female vocalists, so credit for that, as ‘Crushing Hail’ does give a bit of difference from the norm, Mordian and Daye (also on keys) blending to create an interesting melody. Musically, the band is exactly what I expected, and that’s unfortunate, especially when I’d actually been taken back to those early NIGHTWISH / LACUNA COIL / EPICA days for a moment…until the absolute bottom drops out right around the 3 ½ minute mark. […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Ofermod – Mysterium Iniquitatis

OFERMOD are one of the OGs of the Swedish black metal scene, dating all the way back to 1996. Despite that, this new album, their fifth, is the first one I’ve really listened to. Guess I’ll have to look up the back catalog, because Mysterium Iniquitatis is about as pure and classic a Nordic black metal album as I’ve heard this year. These guys hit all the right notes here…everything just sounds pure. It’s not the most extreme sound, but it’s far from commercial – there’s melody, but also brutality – there’s variety, with each song having its own identity. […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Untamed Land – Like Creatures Seeking Their Own Forms

A solo project from Akron, OH’s Patrick Hern, UNTAMED LAND was touted as (no word of a lie) “…the worlds very first metal band incorporating the feral sounds of classic, old western cinematics…” when 2018’s Between The Winds came out, and I laughed about it back then. That this outright falsehood is still being used to promote UL has now reached the point of irritation for me. DIABLO SWING ORCHESTRA and ARABOT have injected more of an “old western” feeling from time to time into their music, and they’re from Sweden and Norway. That’s to say nothing of ACROSS TUNDRAS […]

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 […]

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