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: Paladin – Ascension

The buzz has been strong on this Atlanta band in the last few weeks, and they seem to be the latest darlings of the “true metal” crowd. I find Ascension entertaining enough, but I really have an issue with calling this an ode to ‘80s style power metal. That description leads me to expect something that draws a lot of influence from the likes of OMEN, MANILLA ROAD and the like. PALADIN to me sounds like they’re the second coming of 3 INCHES OF BLOOD mixed with the shredding guitar frenzy of DRAGONFORCE. The songs are fast, leaning to thrash, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Abysmal Grief – Mors Eleison

The mid-late ‘90s in doom metal were a time of flux, moreso than any before or since. On the US front TROUBLE had gone full bloom, from the Sabbathian tones of its classic era into the hazed out, psychedelia-fueled Manic Frustration and Plastic Green Head, whilst on the other side of the Pond, Peaceville’s Big 3 and CATHEDRAL had morphed into entities that – while still miserable as ever – were not what they were at the start. It’s a safe bet, though, that all sub-variations of doom today owe themselves to the exploration of that time, so all that […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Full Of Hell – Weeping Choir

Depending on whom you’re speaking to, FULL OF HELL is either a merchant of modern death/grind of the highest order, or a marketing-funded merch machine masquerading as a band on the level of JOB FOR A COWBOY. For myself, I’ve always thought the Maryland quartet passable, but no great shakes in the grand scheme of things. Just seemed a bit too groomed for the Summer Slaughter circuit for me.It’s comforting, strangely, to know that some things never change. While opener ‘Burning Myrrh’ is SSDD when it comes to FOH, ‘Haunted Arches’ ups the ante, a bit of the ol’ power-faux-lence […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: The Lord Weird Slough Feg – New Organon

What band has the balls to name their album after a book on scientific method written by Francis Bacon in 1620? Who else but THE LORD WEIRD SLOUGH FEG (also known as SLOUGH FEG, but now favoring the longer name again)? It’s a pleasure to see these eccentric masters of philosophical and literary metal in my inbox again! If you love metal in the classic style but with plenty of quirk, I can’t recommend these guys highly enough. And I’m happy to say that New Organon is their best work in quite a while. The recording is rougher, heavier and […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Blood Of Kingu – De Occultia Philosophia

BLOOD OF KINGU’s 2010 Sun In The House Of The Scorpion and Dark Star On The Right Horn Of The Crescent Moon of four years later were, to these ears, classic cosmic black metal albums, their focus on ancient Middle Eastern mythology rendered all the more unforeseen by the entity behind them being Roman Saenko, founding (and current) guitarist/bassist of Ukrainian Nature-worshipers, DRUDKH. Before all of that, though, there was De Occulta Philosophia, first released in 2007 on Supernal Music, and now given new breath by ATMF. It couldn’t have come at a better moment either, the scathing-yet-starborne ‘Your Blood, […]

Album Reviews

ALBUM Review: BERTHOLD CITY – What Time Takes

Igniting with all the energy of JUDGE, XREPRESENTX and early SICK OF IT ALL, Los Angeles’ BERTHOLD CITY lets you know what it’s about in the first 10 seconds of What Time Takes…which is good, as we only have 7 minutes to work with here. Slashing guitars, drums on full auto, and vocals that demand to be not only heard, but respected. ‘No One To Blame’ flails, but focused, a clear sense of direction and self-introspection snarl-spitting into a mirror held up to modern society. “I’ve seen the ugly truth! Got you figured out!” is confrontational in the way only […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Wormwitch – Heaven That Dwells Within

This is my first encounter with WORMWITCH. The band belongs to a kind of subgenre where gloom reigns and black metal is just one flavor in an overall tasting. It resembles the approach of another band I recently encountered, FROSTHELM. But there is an extra layering of melody and mood here that surpasses what FROSTHELM was able to achieve. This is a pretty sophisticated sound with a number of subtle layers. All the songs here are quite involved and have a root in black metal. Changes in riff and tempo are frequent but there are some catchy hooks that make […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Warmrain – Here Comes The Rain Again

Britain’s WARMRAIN moves in like its namesake, the title track (yes, it’s the EURYTHMICS cover) showering down, tasteful leads and downtempo taking the place of the original version’s synth-laden throb. It takes confidence to title a release after a cover, much less to transform someone else’s work with what seems like effortlessness to make it your own…and WARMRAIN does here. ‘Shadowline Paradigm’ follows, plaintive, yet seductively so, wandering in the realms of GREEN CARNATION’s The Acoustic Verses or early BLACKFIELD, while ‘Keep Going’ is driven along by understated, yet persistent rhythm patterns. The one fault that I can find within […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Nocturnus AD – Paradox

There has been an avalanche of really cool releases in the last month…the first new POSSESSED in more than 30 years, the latest from SUNN 0))), new ARCH/MATHEOS, many interesting works from lesser known bands. Well, this might just be the best out of all of them. Never have I heard such a perfect sequel to a classic almost 30 years old. The Key by NOCTURNUS (no A.D. back then) was released in 1990 and really changed the death metal paradigm. It was the first work that showed synthesizers and keyboards could be integrated into extreme death metal successfully. The […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Victims – The Horse And Sparrow Theory

D-beat may have first been shot forth from the uterus of hardcore punk in the UK (BUZZCOCKS, DISCHARGE), but its continuation and thriving as a sub-genre owes a lot to Sweden, where bands such as ANTI CIMEX and MOB 47 joined the kangpunk gangbang, thereby spawning hundreds of blindingly fast, sloppier than a $2 whore, heavier than Messiah Marcolin children, and at least a dozen DARKTHRONE songs. Kicking out 8 tunes in 28 minutes, it’s clear VICTIMS comes from the VARUKERS / SKITSYSTEM school of “blast first, ask questions later”, which serves the quartet well over most of The Horse […]

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