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: Pallbearer – Forgotten Days

On one side of the coin, I’ve never just never “gotten” Arkansas’ PALLBEARER. They’re a doom/doom-influenced band, which should be a selling point for me, they’re from the Southern US, which has its own special brand of sorrow and weight, and perspective on things, which should be another. But I just can’t. After a couple “good enough” albums on Profound Lore, Heartless arrived on newfound home Nuclear Blast, and the band became a buzzword through no fault of their own. On the other side, Forgotten Days purports to be an album dealing with the theme of family, something I myself […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Inquisition – Black Mass For A Mass Grave

I must say I was extremely surprised to see this album released. After all the bad business that main songwriter Dagon was involved in, I thought no real record company would touch INQUISITION. Well, here comes Black Mass For A Mass Grave on no less than long-running Agonia Records and with this mystical project sounding bigger and more cosmic than ever. This is almost a double album in length (the vinyl actually is a double LP) and sees the duo executing their most ambitious sounds yet. If you can put the accusations of sexual perversion and outright fascism to one […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Dipygus – Bushmeat

Not many who hear this album will realize the significance of the track ‘St. Augustine, FL 1896’ but with the Good Doctor’s abiding interest in cryptozoology and all things bizarre, I immediately recognized what this date and time meant. That was when the carcass of some enormous sea beast washed up on the Floridian shore, with many believing it to be the body of a titanic octopus. Ah ha, so DIPYGUS are kindred spirits! That’s confirmed by the title of the next song here, ‘The Khunjung Scalp’, which is the purported scalp of the Himalayan Yeti. Yessir, DIPYGUS, whoever they […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Eximperitus – Sahrartu

This is my first experience with BUNDLE OF STICKS from the troubled land of Belarus. Oh, wait, their name is Eximperituserqethhzebibšiptugakkathšulweliarzaxułum. BUNDLE OF STICKS is better. OK, let’s shorten it to EXIMPERITUS. Better yet!With the ridiculous name and logo, I was prepared for crappy goregrind, but instead my eyes and ears are opened to some amazing Egyptian-sounding death metal that is as heavy and imposing as the pyramids themselves. In a year full of great death metal, here is another winner. The comparisons to NILE are unavoidable, but EXIMPERITUS is so good at what they do, they actually surpass their […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Wayfarer – A Romance With Violence

My search for something new brings me to the dusty plains of the mythical American West, where we find WAYFARER spinning tales of gunslingers, railroads and sudden death. The bloody true history of the West, and the more romanticized version of movies and TV offers a lot of fertile ground for an enterprising metal band to explore. With WAYFARER we get something that’s part Morricone and part PRIMORDIAL, part Americana and part raging metal. It’s a sound that I may not always be 100% into, but for sure it’s carved out its own territory, which is nothing to sneeze at. […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Serpents Of Secrecy – Ave Vindicta

Formed by members current and past of the mighty SIXTY WATT SHAMAN, KING GIANT and more, Baltimore’s SERPENTS OF SECRECY has Maryland Doom in its rattling bones from the start, the fuzzed out bass of dear, departed bassist Rev. Jim Forrester leading the slow and low charge in the title track. Fluid yet fang’ed, elements of bands as varied as SOLACE and FOGHAT (who were actually a pretty heavy live band) show up in ‘Heel Turn’, which carries on through the syrupy sludge of ‘Time Crushes All’, the early Cornell tinting to vocalist Mark Lorenzo’s delivery dripping over the tune […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Mortiferum / Hyperdontia – Split 7″

I use the phrase “short, sharp shock” a fair amount. I try not to, but I’ll admit to it popping up more than I’d like. Besides, it doesn’t really fit this release. Two bands, two songs. Get in, get rabid, get out. Back in the day, those Maxell or TDK 60-90 minute cassettes we’d get in the mail from writing addresses in the back of metal magazines to trade bands and hear music were treasure troves. Yeah, of course there were some clunkers, but more often than not, you’d come away with at least a handful of new (to you) […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Starcrazy – Played For Suckers [EP]

Sydney, Australia’s STARCRAZY make their play for the spotlight early next year with this EP, Played For Suckers but, what with the promo sheet espousing such legendary influences as HANOI ROCKS, BOWIE and MOTHER LOVE BONE, I felt we were setting the bar a bit high, perhaps. The just shy of 2-minutes opener, ‘Rise’, wasn’t that great of an idea as a lead-off, as it’s basically an instrumental build to what would, in other times, have been that moment when the backlit stage bathes ‘n’ blinds legions of die-hard fans, the band kicking off their show in grand style. As […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Mors Principium Est – Seven

I’ve always had a soft spot for melodic death metal, especially that of the Scandinavian/Teutonic variety, so Finland’s MORS PRINCIPIUM EST fit easily into my listening choices when NIGHT IN GALES took a hiatus for the ‘10s, when we didn’t know if AT THE GATES was going to be a thing anymore, and when IN FLAMES disappeared up its own ass starting with 1999’s Colony, incidentally the year of MPE’s founding. Now on its appropriately-titled 7th album, the duo has largely been reliable, not having released an outright clunker during its two decades. Certainly, there are some standouts as well […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Hatebreed – Weight Of The False Self

I just can’t get behind Jamey Jasta & co. One could make the case that HATEBREED’s frontman/heart and soul of the band has done much for hardcore, as far as bringing it into the spotlight. Whoever said that’s where hardcore wanted to be is my thought. Anyway, the band’s never impressed me, but I can’t seem to help giving each new album a listen. Not sure exactly what I’m hoping for, but I know I haven’t found it yet. And so it remains with Weight Of The False Self, HATEBREED’s eighth. I couldn’t help but wince at the rhyme of […]

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