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: MANEGARM – Fornaldarsagor

This is a lusty and full-blooded offering of Viking/pagan metal from veterans who clearly know what they are doing. I put MANEGARM along with HEIDEVOLK at the top of the pagan metal heap and one listen to Fornaldarsagor will show you why. This is energetic, varied metal with an excellent production. Pagan metal often borrows from its darker brother black metal, and MANEGARM is no exception. ‘Sveablotet’ opens the festivities with a massive wall of guitar power that leaps into a fast, black metal tinged blast.I will tell you right off the bat that if you don’t like foreign language […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Ringworm – Death Becomes My Voice

You know, there are a few bands who so settled into who their identity, into what a/an [Insert Band Name Here] album should sound like, that diversion seems almost unthinkable. AC/DC and MOTORHEAD come to mind, RAMONES, NAPALM DEATH. Far from a slight, though, at least in the aforementioned instances, what we’re given goes beyond simple “branding”, revealing bands who don’t know how to be anything except themselves – it comes from within. It’s the marrow in their bones, for better or worse. Cleveland’s RINGWORM is one such band, and thus on its eighth, Death Becomes My Voice, most of […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Lost Dog Street Band – Weight Of A Trigger

‘To Heaven And Back’ leads off LOST DOG STREET BAND’s fifth full-length, and seems to have all the boxes ticked for legitimacy in the Americana engine that’s been gathering steam over the past decade or so. Twang? Check! Jubilant, jugband feel? Gotcher covered, mister! Hard travelin’ lyrics ‘bout that long, rocky road to salvation? Amen! Still, the whole thing seems a bit too…clean, for lack of a better term; a little more antiseptic than what at least I’m looking for when it comes to this type of music. ‘Given Up Faith’ is a contemplative, lovelorn hymn to and of regret […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Vltimas – Something Wicked Marches In

David Vincent has taken a lot of flak over the last couple of years for being in a country music band and also doing a knockoff of his former band MORBID ANGEL. Those criticisms may very well be justified, but I’ll tell you one thing…the guy is still a master death metal vocalist and one listen to this album will prove it. Vincent has always been one of the forefathers and leaders of the death metal genre. On Something Wicked Marches In, he’s at his best, growling away in a clear and comprehensible fashion and adding theatrical little touches like […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Bitchhammer – Offenders Of The Faith

Formed just over a decade ago, by Bastard Priest and Majesty Ov Hell of the negligibly-more-clean ANTYRA, and augmented by the guitars of Jack Frost, Leipzig’s BITCHHAMMER bring the black and the thrash in equal force on their debut. Had Offenders Of The Faith come out on Hells Headbangers, not an eye would have been batted as far as style goes, but released as it is on the more traditional heavy/speed metal-leaning Iron Shield Records, the trio wastes no time in kicking down the door with ‘Funeral Sorcery’, establishing BITCHHAMMER as the unruly, drunken cousin at the party. ‘Satanic Violence’ […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Mutilated By Zombies – Scripts Of Anguish

Need to be honest from the jump here…I have been a fan and follower of this Iowa band since I first saw them over 10 years ago. Their progress has been slow and steady, but in many ways, Scripts Of Anguish is their first true album. And what an absolute corker it is! The band name indicates gory and brutal death metal and that is certainly a big part of MBZ, but there’s much more to them than that. This is a band that draws a lot of influence from the likes of GORGUTS and DEATH’s progressive period, but always […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Indestructible Noise Command – Terrible Things

I remember INDESTRUCTIBLE NOISE COMMAND from the tail end of the 80’s, when they part of the huge thrash metal boom at that time. I can’t say they made a huge impression on me, as they seemed to be decidedly second-tier and not on the same level as the big boys. More than 30 years later and INC are still in action. Terrible Things gives the listener a fuzzy glow of thrash nostalgia as the band is still plying thrash in the time-honored tradition. The production here is a level above their old stuff (which I remember having a horrendous […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Ewigkeit – DISclose

Ah, Mr. Fog there you are! Haven’t seen you for a while. But then, you pick the oddest times to pop up… EWIGKEIT, the creation of one James “Mr. Fog” Fogarty, has been one of the most one of a kind metal acts out there for many years. I even had the pleasure of speaking to him for Wormwood Chronicles years ago. Always obsessed with cosmic matters, he’s returned to action with DISClose, an album revolving around UFOs, conspiracies and the nature of truth. And it’s another great example of how he combines metal heaviness, appealing melodies and spaced out […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Vimur – Triumphant Master Of Fates

Don’t look now, but the 90’s black metal nostalgia kick is in full swing. After hearing the excellent new WINDSWEPT album recently, here comes the freezing fire known as VIMUR to try their hand at the classic misanthropic style. What’s more, these guys hail from the frostbitten plains of…Atlanta, Georgia?! They make a good first impression simply with the excellent cover art here. That always helps put one in the mood for epic darkness, and epic darkness is the best description of the VIMUR sound. The songs are extremely fast, cold and vicious but still with very notable melody and […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Rotting Christ – The Heretics

ROTTING CHRIST have existed in their own self-contained universe almost from the start of their career, which is now approaching the 30 year mark. They have never been interested in the typical trappings of what many perceive as extreme metal…they’ve never tried to be the fastest, the most brutal or, despite the obvious connotations of their name, the most blasphemous. They just create music on their own terms with no desire to meet any outside expectations.  The Heretics is for sure the most cinematic of all ROTTING CHRIST albums. A lot of this sounds like it could be the soundtrack […]

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