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: God Dethroned – Illuminati

GOD DETHRONED has been one of my “go to” bands since the early ’90s, as well as probably the top extreme metal act from Holland. That’s why it pains me to say that their latest, Illuminati, is a very average release, and one that lacks the usual fire and fury we can expect from Henri Sattler and whoever his current cohorts are. It’s not that the band have radically changed their style here, or that this lacks technical skill and ability. Something just seems off about it. It is generally slower than what we’ve been getting from GOD DETHRONED and […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Lychgate – Also Sprach Futura

LYCHGATE’s fourth release (and first for Debemur Morti Productions) seems as good a starting point as any for my ears. Having three full-lengths to its name at this point, and with nary a core lineup change since its inception, LYCHGATE should be settled into what it is and what it is not, thereby providing the new listener an experience of a band at its best. Quite frankly, I’m ashamed at myself, as big a fan of ESOTERIC as I am, not realizing the part Greg Chandler plays as a third of this trio, but rest assured, this isn’t some “pet […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Formosa – Danger Zone

With two albums under its belt (2016’s Tight & Sexy and Sorry For Being Sexy from 2018), and promo photos that make FORMOSA look like either stunt doubles for General Zod, Non and Ursa from Superman II or extras from the Blue Oyster scenes in the first Police Academy movie, I cannot bloody wait to hear this shit. ‘Dynamite’ prances out of the gate, positively poppy, BIBLE OF THE DEVIL at half-speed and ¼ the passion, and ‘Masquerade’ fares not much better, FORMOSA revealing itself to be any one of a thousand club bands you can see in any mid-sized […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: XPUS – In Umbra Mortis Sedent

XPUS are a mysterious new death metal force from Italy and they are well worth checking out if you like your DM gloomy, morbid and sounding like it just erupted from a rotten crypt. Although not without a flaw or two, these evil revenants perform the amazing feat of sounding fairly original while evoking the spirit of many early progenitors of death. If you prefer chunky, oozing riffs with the hint of doom, XPUS are your boys. Even their faster moments (and they are capable of DEICIDE level speed) have that essential feeling of sickness and sorrow. There are touches […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Invictus – Eden

Subdued and pastoral, the abbreviated intro is less a standard, bland “intro track” than an opening of a door, a passing through of a gate…that is until the rough ‘n’ ragged guitar tone of ‘The Hammer’ crashes down, frayed around the edges, and the better for it, reminiscent of the passion-over-proficiency so prevalent in the garage days of power/thrash. Not that the Bavarians aren’t skilled at their craft. Far from it, in fact, especially when the pace slows down ¾ of the way through to give the solo room to breath. After the Sacred Heart-era DIO influence of ‘Inside Your […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Thy Catafalque – Naiv

In almost every conceivable case, when I read a line in a band’s PR sheet that says their current album is “their least metal ever”, the hackles on my neck go up and I fear the worst. But not with THY CATAFALQUE, because I know Tamas Katai is in the driver’s seat. He knows where he’s going, he knows how to drive and his grip on the wheel is firm. With THY CATAFALQUE, Katai has consistently proven he’s the rarest of birds in today’s music scene…an honest to God composer. There is something about the way this man writes music […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Primeval Mass – Nine Altars

Now this is a real discovery! I’m sure we will be hearing a lot more from PRIMEVAL MASS, because on Nine Altars they have created a smoking blast of evil metal that rips at every turn. This is even more amazing when you learn that this is basically the work of one guy named Orth, who is influenced by everything from CORONER to STORMWITCH to ABSU to RUSH. You can actually hear those influences, and more, during the course of the album! On the whole, PRIMEVAL MASS is driven by speed, although they are capable of slower and more melodic […]

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, […]

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