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: Rosy Finch – Scarlet

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from ROSY FINCH, as not only has Spain never revealed itself as a hotbed of anything remotely sludge-related, but that I always brace myself for disappointment when a band uses the “s” word but fails to deliver. While technically the band’s third release, we might as well call Scarlet a debut, because when a trio changes out 2/3 of its lineup, it can hardly be called the same band, right? With each song named after a shade of red, the album should be looked at as a singular piece of art, but not […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Pure Wrath – The Forlorn Soldier

In the realm of the black metal lyric, it’s uncommon to note such a stylistic shift between albums – at least not so abruptly – as what occurred in PURE WRATH between 2017’s Ascetic Eventide and Sempiternal Wisdom of the following year. While not entirely bereft of the former’s Nature-worship, it was clear that the fulcrum had tipped in the way founder and solitary member Ryo saw his place in the world, and his Indonesian heritage. And, thus, does The Forlorn Soldier find PURE WRATH not only tipping the fulcrum, but stepping off and into an EP thematically linked in […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Don Jamieson – Denim And Leather

I’m not a big fan of “fun”. It’s not that I don’t enjoy doing things in life, but “fun” – in the traditional sense, at least – has always, in the words of TOM WAITS “…rubbed me up the wrong way.” The same goes doubly for stand-up comedy. Quite frankly, all our gods are dead in that realm, and modernity (by and large) has yet to bestow on us the next Foxx, Hedberg, Carlin, Williams, Hicks, Bruce, or Gardner. You get where I’m going with this, surely… I’ll admit to being fairly curious when DON JAMIESON announced his first offering, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Seven Planets – Explorer

After over a quarter-century playing together in various incarnations, there’s no quarter given for half-assing a performance (live or on record), or not playing to the strengths of both yourself and your bandmates. Now, three albums deep into the space inhabited by SEVEN PLANETS, we have Explorer, so let’s just climb aboard and hope this ship takes us somewhere worth the trip. Opener ‘Vanguard’ sports a LEAF HOUND groove, albeit a bit more funky than London’s highest ever went. Instrumental rock bears a curse, in that there’s no room for “dead air”, or just wandering aimlessly, and it never feels […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Blood Spore – Fungal Warfare Upon All Life

I always get a little snarky when a band’s first release for a label is also their demo/album that originally came out anywhere from a month to years prior. I get the feeling the band’s got new material in the bag or “almost ready”, but one party or another wanted to buy some time for whatever reason. ‘Hostile Fruiting Bodies’ blooms and looms large, towering, crimson-bathed riffs and near-sludge pacing in parts, gnarled OBITUARY-an gore (think Cause Of Death) in others, the section from 1:16-1:33 being particularly Cro-Magnon in its abuse. Slow, and with a tinge of sable-hued psychedelia, I […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Nick Giannakos – The Alchemist

Ohio’s WRETCH fired off a few rounds in the mid-late ‘80s, never really rising above the demo/rehearsal stage. After – sort of – reuniting in the early ‘00s, it seems founding guitarist Nick Giannakos and longstanding drummer Jeff Curenton have hit their stride, adding new blood and crafting some fairly solid power/thrash over the past few years in the process. This isn’t a WRETCH review, though, but backgrounds can be important when it comes to instrumental albums, The Alchemist, in this case. Released under the moniker NICK GIANNAKOS And Alchemy, this debut is clearly meant to highlight the WRETCH gunslinger’s […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Sepultura – Quadra

Few bands are more frustrating to analyze than modern day SEPULTURA. They’re always on the edge of a major breakthrough but never seen to make it. They are at the nexus where ambition meets pretension and it’s hard to tell which side is going to win at any time. I’ve always been someone willing to give the Cavalera-less band a good chance, and for the last few albums, flashes of brilliance are there. So is some really banal groove-thrash. The last album, Machine Messiah, seemed like a disorganized mess where they reached too far past where they should have. I’m […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Beast Of Revelation – The Ancient Ritual Of Death

There’s some high-powered veteran offense on display in BEAST OF REVELATION. Vocals and bass are delivered by no less than John McEntee of INCANTATION and FUNERUS fame, a man who’s had his gnarly finger on the pulse of rotten death metal for about three decades now. That’s a major component right there. Adding drumbeats to the BEAST is Bob Bagchus once of ASPHYX, now a part of INFIDEL REICH, HELLEHOND and more…another solid veteran. The agonizing guitars come from A.J. Drenth from the bands TEMPLE and THRONE. I’m not too familiar with them, but I’m guessing they don’t play pop […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Annihilator – Ballistic, Sadistic

When a band hits something like their seventeenth album, I feel like too much time can be spent comparing it to their older material while not focusing on what is being currently presented. So, I decided to challenge myself and handle this album as a standalone experience as possible. Without further ado, here are my thoughts on ANNIHILATOR’s Ballistic, Sadistic. Jeff Waters really knows how to crank one out in many ways, whether it be quips, riffs, solos, or innuendos (I’m looking at you ‘Lip Service”). This album has so much of that fun, tongue-in-cheek thrash metal attitude that makes […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: T.O.M.B. – Thin The Veil

T.O.M.B., aka Total Occultic Mechanical Blasphemy, adds to their expansive discography with their sixth full-length release, Thin The Veil. They are labeled as avant-garde black metal that includes a mix of styles including noise, industrial and doom. This album oozes atmosphere like blood from a freshly opened wound, and it cements T.O.M.B. even more as a top innovator in modern day black metal. The album rips open with ‘No Return’. It is really a wall of sound that grabs your attention, but it is very much a very straightforward black metal track. The only notable thing for that track is […]

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