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: Oxblood Forge – Decimator

Sometimes one critical element can trip a band up. Exhibit A: Boston-based OXBLOOD FORGE, a band specializing in classic heavy metal with a doomy tinge. That kind of material is right up the Doctor’s alley, but one thing brings my enjoyment of the band to a screeching halt. “Screeching” is the correct term, because the vocals of Ken Mackay are 100% amateur hour. It doesn’t take long at all for Mackay’s tuneless shrieks to manifest. From the first second his voice appears on the hard-driving ‘Into The Abyss’, you can tell something is way out of whack. I get the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Death On Fire – Six Foot Box [EP]

One would think, after two albums and a split heading up the annoyingly-named DEATH ON FIRE, as well as a “funny” little grind parody project ALPHA O-MAGA, Tim Kenefic would’ve either given up, or at least latched onto something worth a listen. Regrettably, what we’re given with Six Foot Box is more of the same. The title track wanders, even 30 seconds in, meandering, Kenefic doing his best DANZIG impression (check out the band’s truly abysmal stumble through ‘How The Gods Kill’ for his worst), lackadaisical vocals reminiscent of nowadays Phil Anselmo reliving the nods from his heroin days, all […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Birdflesh – All The Miseries [EP]

BIRDFLESH is back and squawking! The goofy Swedish grinders have been raising holy Hell for 30 years and they are just as brutal and stupid now as they were back in tape trading days. New EP, All The Miseries, will thrill all their mongoloid fans as it shows absolutely no progression! And I sincerely say that with all due affection. Newcomers may wonder how an EP can have 24 tracks on it, but BIRDFLESH fans know the score. If these guys do a song longer than a minute and a half, it’s the equivalent of RUSH’s ‘2112’ for them. So […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Orphan Donor – Unraveled

My early 20s were a time fraught with experimentation of practically any sort you’d care to imagine. Some of those early alchemical attempts “took”, becoming part of my fiber to this day, some not at all, and some “took” in ways they shouldn’t have. Of the former, a video store (VHS, natch) rental of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s first English-language film, Santa Sangre, resulted in that uncomfortable yet strangely titillating sensation of someone dipping their fingertips into the edges of your mind, toying, testing. While backtracking through Jodorowsky’s previous works, I came upon 1973’s The Holy Mountain, which was the equivalent of […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: CMPT – Mrtvaja [EP]

Clocking in at a goat’s breath shy of 20 minutes, Balkan entity CMPT has its work cut out for it. With only two songs, almost evenly cleaving Mrtvaja in twain, not a second of space can be wasted, even one minute of aimless wandering would taint the purity I’m sure CMPT is seeking to display. Built on indigenous ways and Slavic folklore, ‘Mrtvaja Part 1’ lures, hypnotic before a blazing, triumphal chaos unfolds, enfolds the listening ear, offering no chance of escape. Rhythmically impressive – and it’s satisfying to hear the drumming so clear, so prevalent in the mix – […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Angstskrig – Skyggespil

I always get a little worried when a group/band/gathering of entities feels the need to tell us they are “shrouded in mystery” or esoteric. Shouldn’t such things speak for themselves, after all? Shouldn’t the darkness, the obscured lure the listener in? Even more is the concern when it seems the duo of ?? and ?? have been tutored from a young age in the ways of black metal by some sort of occultic Svengali, so as to execute all aspects of their art “correctly”. It’s not often I preview an album by watching a video, but ‘Lucifer Kalder’ was helpful, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Memoriam – To The End

Since The Hellfire Demos announced Karl Willetts’ return to Death Metal at the helm of MEMORIAM in 2016, it’s a mere 5 years on, and we’re already looking at the band’s fourth full-length. On its own, that’s not saying much. A good many bands are as productive. Often, though, such a rigorous writing/recording regimen can cause the quality to suffer, at times. Thankfully not so here, as ‘Onwards Into Battle’ is a true call to arms, majestic as the quartet has ever sounded, as ready for havoc, but united, in lock step with Spikey T. Smith’s rhythm engine, which doesn’t […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Fuoco Fatuo – Obsidian Katabasis

Italy – possibly not surprisingly, considering the iron grasp of the church of Rome, and the sense of the liturgical ensuing – has been a stronghold of doom for many years, the organ-driven NOCTU, the more traditional ABYSMAL GRIEF, and SEPULCHRAL VOID coming to top of mind. Enter Lombardy’s FUOCO FATUO with Obsidian Katabasis, its third full-length celebrating its first decade of existence. Comprising three more extended pieces, each over 13 minutes in length, and divided by shorter, yet no less important, instrumental movements, it’s easy to see the album as a concept. It may well be that, but not […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Bewitcher – Cursed Be Thy Kingdom

This record took a while to really hit its stride, but it finally got there. BEWITCHER is a SoCal act kind of following in the footsteps of several “evil rocking metal” bands, and they didn’t strike me as anything too special in the first half of the album. After a bluesy intro of ‘Ashe’, they lead off with ‘Death Returns’, which sounds like a not so thrashy MIDNIGHT. Dirty rock meets heavy metal…it’s always a good formula, but pretty well worn. ‘Satanic Magick Attack’ sounds a lot like ‘2 Minutes To Midnight’ with different vocals and some minor tweaks… I’m […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Steel Bearing Hand – Slay In Hell

The last 25 years of metal never happened as far as Texas’ STEEL BEARING HAND is concerned, and that’s alright by me. These Lone Star Lunatics have constructed a love letter to the death and thrash metal of the late ’80s and early ’90s on Slay In Hell, steadfastly ignoring any “progression” since those days. By focusing on what they know and love, they’ve pretty much whipped the ass of any banger who lays ears on this. The album is just six tracks and pretty brief, but packs a lot into its length. The best thing about Slay In Hell […]

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