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: 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 […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Kawir – Adrasteia

No band symbolizes the essence of ancient Greece more than KAWIR. They never fail to evoke the timeless spirit of the old Greek gods and myths with their music, and Adrasteia is no exception. While I can’t say this is my favorite KAWIR album – that would be Father Sun, Mother Moon -, I can say that it has every attribute that makes these guys such a mesmerizing listening experience. Just six tracks here, but all are well developed. The opener ‘Tydeus’ is a bit of a slower burner, starting with a lot of chanting and a moderate pace before […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Blot & Blod – Ormekongens Argelist

The three-piece, black metal band BLOT & BOD bring a raw, energetic, primal but all too-familiar sound to their sophomore release, Ormekongens Argelist. This album does very little to waste your time, clocking just under thirty minutes, and I intend to do the same. First and foremost, this album is a raw black metal assault filled with tremolo picking, blast beats, and witchy vocals all wrapped up in a lo-fi package that will make any Yule celebration kvlt and trve. Now, with that out of the way, what sets this album apart from the countless others like it? Sadly, not […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Haunt – Mind Freeze

HAUNT keep whipping them out like it’s 1972! Back then it wasn’t unusual for bands to release 2 full lengths a year. It hasn’t been much more than six months since the last HAUNT album If Icarus Could Fly came out, and that doesn’t even include HAUNT main man Trevor Church’s other band, BEASTMAKER, (now sadly defunct due to HAUNT’s success) having their own album out. Sometimes this kind of quantity affects quality…is that the case here? Mind Freeze is really what the new ANGELWITCH album, Angel Of Light, should have sounded like. It has that dark, musty production that […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Infidel Reich – Reichenstein

INFIDEL REICH is a four-piece death metal outfit from Columbus, Ohio, featuring ACHERON founder Vincent Crowley on vocals, early ASPHYX guitarist Tony Brookhuis, prolific drummer Bob Bagchus (ex-ASPHYX, SOULBURN, GRAND SUPREME BLOOD COURT etc), and one McNasty on bass. They created a buzz with their first self-titled EP back in 2017, now culminating in their first full length album, Reichenstein, released in November of 2019. This album is an odd one to be sure. Musically, I find this album enjoyable, for the most part. A lot of mid-paced romps that would grab anyone who’s a fan of BOLT THROWER, VENOM, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Kirk Windstein – Dream In Motion

“Heaviness” is a term used in extreme music for a long time to describe how dark, deep, or even how loud a song can be. Heaviness usually also has an individual mean to each person. For me, heaviness can be the tone, but it is also conveyed in the message the music is trying to get across lyrically. When it comes to KIRK WINDSTEIN’s debut solo album Dream In Motion, it has heaviness in spades. The first thing that is noticeable about this album is how it subtly sets itself apart from other projects KIRK WINDSTEIN has been in. Kirk […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Mindless Sinner – Poltergeist

MINDLESS SINNER is a 5-piece, classic heavy metal outfit from Sweden, and they are bringing waves of catchy riffs and choruses in their newest album Poltergeist. This is their follow up to their 2015 comeback album The New Messiah. Poltergeist is a time capsule filled with leather, Vikings, stock explosion audio clips, dual guitars, and just a hint of cheese that made the speed/power metal of the ’80s so much fun, and so memorable. The voice work by Christer Göransson is definitely the highlight of the album for me. His voice reminds me of a mix between Bruce Dickinson and […]

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