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: Cadaver – D. G. A. F.

Norway’s CADAVER has always been, is, and looks to forever be Neddo. It also seems to foul the ears so sporadically as to almost be forgotten in the interim, despite cranking out some morbidly grotesque death under the name CADAVER. And so, 16 years after the flesh-covered wrecking ball that was Necrosis, Neddo surfaces again, journeyman skinbasher Dirk Verbeuren behind the kit, to deliver D. G. A. F. At just over 10 minutes long, the duo has neither the time (nor thankfully) the inclination to fuck around, Jeff Walker lending his rasp to the title track. Luddite as all Hell, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Winterfylleth – The Reckoning Dawn

It’s been six long years since WINTERFYLLETH released an all out black metal album. 2018 saw an acoustic/folk based effort entitled The Hallowing Of Heirdom. The result of this time off has been nothing less than a complete reinvigoration of the band; The Reckoning Dawn is the best album WINTERFYLLETH has ever done. This is blurry, high speed black metal at its absolute peak. The pace is relentless, but the songs are full of emotion and majesty. Listening to this album, I experienced shades of rage, sadness, defiance and pride. The riffing reaches back to the dawn times of Albion […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Tombs – Monarchy Of Shadows

TOMBS is for sure one of the most reliable bands in American black metal. I haven’t heard a bad album by them yet, and the latest, Monarchy Of Shadows, stands as one of their best. They are laser focused here, and don’t mess around for a second. It’s a compact album of six songs, but you get plenty of bang for the buck. I like how TOMBS subtly shift the approach on each song, bringing in slightly different influences, but yet the album is a unified whole. The title track starts things off with gloomy synth until hard riffs come […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Trivium – What The Dead Men Say

I don’t know what it was about TRIVIUM’s debut Ember To Inferno that I dug back in ’03, but clearly, it didn’t take long for Heafy and the boys to monkeywrench what was already a barely roadworthy machine, becoming a pastiche of even themselves only two years later, and firing off an album that would’ve killed a less merch-driven band only one year after that with The Crusade. It’s nearly 15 years later now, and the musical climate has changed. TRIVIUM hasn’t, though, and album #9 flails and falters from the start, twee guitar squeal with all the rage of […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Khemmis – Doomed Heavy Metal

KHEMMIS’ 2018 release proved my Third Album Theory on so many levels. At some point, I’ll have it up on this site, but suffice it to say that it wasn’t only my ears which heard something special in the Colorado quartet that – while it might’ve been there before – came shining through within Desolation. It’s really no surprise that the first tune we’d hear from the band after its most blatantly metal album was a song of the stature of ‘Rainbow In The Dark’. What is impressive, however, is that KHEMMIS pulls it off with nary a hitch nor […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Front – Antichrist Militia

After four years and doubling its lineup in size, Finland’s FRONT return with MCD, Antichrist Militia. Still on the Iron Bonehead imprint, still peddling its brand of war-tinged blackthrash, a bit of death sprinkled here and there for taste, Missile shriek string histrionics and an instantly catchy riff & rhythm riot advance onto the battlefield, the title track literally spilling over with bloody ideas come to fruition, riffs imprinting on your memory at first listen, and would’ve stood just fine as an opener without the seemingly obligatory and needless intro, ‘Doom Cult Legion’. After the blatant MOTORHEAD homage ‘Iron Front’, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Collision – The Final Kill

15 releases in 20 years ain’t that bad of a run for a band of any sort, and while a good many of those were of the Split/EP variety, there’s no doubt the Dutch killing machine that will be remembered as COLLISION ate, drank, and shat grind. The Final Kill is to be the quintet’s swan song, if the press releases are to be believed, but at the end of this 15-minute (17+ minutes on album due to the vinyl-only cover of S.O.D.’s ‘Kill Yourself’) blastfest, you’re left with the feeling that COLLISION wasn’t planning on going out with anything […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Dirt Woman – The Glass Cliff

Maryland’s DIRT WOMAN is the world’s first WINDHAND tribute band. The members probably won’t like hearing that, but there it is. One listen to The Glass Cliff, and chances are, you’ll agree. Now, that does not necessarily mean this is a “bad” album. It’s actually pretty good, if you like super-gooey sludge riffs mixed with haunting female vocals. It’s just really, really derivative. Lots of long, oozing jams here, with only 5 songs, but about an hour of run time. The minute you hear the guitar tone on ‘Lady Of The Dunes’, you know you’re in for one super-heavy ride […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Curse Upon A Prayer – Infidel

Much has been made of the fact that Finland’s CURSE UPON A PRAYER have anti-Islamic lyrics, to the point that all other facets of the band are in danger of shuddering under the weight of this supposed gimmickry. Truth is, CUAP has crafted some fairly solid black metal in its short history, and isn’t black metal supposed to be anti-…well, pretty much everything anyway? So let’s get to it. While I was a bit concerned that ‘Call To Prayer’ was going to be a full on intro of the Adhan, I needn’t have been, the foursome unrolling a hazy rug […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Necrowretch – The Ones From Hell

This French band has been going at it for a good long stretch now, tossing out discs of evil death metal every few years to remind us they’re still around. They put me in a peculiar position, because they are definitely heavy enough, fast enough and diabolical enough, but they just don’t seem to make a big impression on me. The Ones From Hell is more of the same. These guys don’t have the aura of being bandwagon-jumpers, their commitment to black and death metal seems sincere. Yet it doesn’t register in any major way. They are influenced by classic […]

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