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: 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 […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: THE OLD DEAD TREE – The End

Saying goodbye can be a difficult thing, but I believe goodbyes on good terms are much better than memories fading into nothingness. THE OLD DEAD TREE releases their final EP, The End, as a final chapter to celebrate a twenty plus year career, and it is definitely a satisfying but concise ending. This EP contains 5 tracks, all written around 1999, and all these tracks fit right in with their library of dark, beautiful and melancholic brand of progressive metal. The EP kicks off with ’Sorry’. A lite piano intro shifts into a very percussive riff, and then, breaks away […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: FEN – The Dead Light

Melancholic, mournful, furious and hopeful are all words that circled me in listening through FEN’s 2019 release, The Dead Light. This is the sixth full length album released by this atmospheric black metal war horse since their inception in 2006, and this is their most formidable album to date. Unlike previous releases, The Dead Light brings more prog elements to the table. This mixes well with the more typical soundscapes and blackened fury FEN is known for. The album opens with ‘Witness’ which really introduces you to what you should expect for the rest of the album. It starts with […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Legendry – The Wizard And The Tower Keep

This is a real oddball release, and perhaps that is its greatest strength. With their 1982-era Dungeons And Dragons style artwork, Pennsylvania’s LEGENDRY looks like they might be another knock-off of NWOBHM and epic power metal. And indeed, you can find much of that style here. But there’s a lot more going on sonically here than can be described in one easy sentence. There’s a lot of ’70s love and worship in LEGENDRY. They have the kind of quirkiness that could be found in early SABBATH, RAINBOW, ’70s RUSH, even JETHRO TULL and KANSAS! They don’t restrict themselves to basic […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Kilter – Axiom

In the interest of full disclosure, let’s be clear. I know as much about the inner workings of jazz as you do about what I had for breakfast, and, by and large, I feel that it’s a joke I’ll never get the punchline of. It’s math masquerading (mathsquerading?) as music, and I never had a head for numbers, so… On the other hand, what this does do is free me up to enjoy – or not – the style on a purely visceral/emotional level. Either it speaks to me, or it doesn’t, and there’s literally zero historical context from which […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: AngelBlast – Rotting Paradise

A word on ANGELBLAST. Well, not much more than “a word”, as the entity has only just been shat forth from creation’s uterus, and all we really know is that it features in its ranks members of EXCRUCIATE and DARKENED. No surprise, then, that what’s on offer is death metal. Because the world needs another death metal band like it needs another hole in the head. To its credit, though, the title track of Rotting Paradise cranks up with a seconds-long snare roll, then gets down to the skullcrush. Subterfuge melodies writhe beneath the surface of passionately-delivered death reminiscent of […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: The Wraith – Gloom Ballet

With its longest song just a shade over the 4-minute mark, THE WRAITH’s debut full-length reveals the quartet as a band that doesn’t waste time with pleasantries or overlong introductions. First impressions are everything these days, and ‘Ballad Of Aeon’ rocks with the fervor of early LORDS OF THE NEW CHURCH, yet the hack ‘n’ slash guitars of late ‘80s Hussey/Hinkler MISSION UK, bands that sound about as disparate as two could within their chosen subgenre. It works here, though, a sign of good things to come, we hope. ‘Prevail’ falters in the verses, a bit too akin to the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Blackqueen – The Destructive Cycle

Seattle’s BLACKQUEEN returns with its all-important Album Number Three here, summarily getting down to the business of ‘The Destructive Cycle’, sludge reminiscent of the much-missed RABIES CASTE in moments, the angular slash ‘n’ burn of early QUICKSAND in others. Surprisingly, most of all, is that this instrumental introduction didn’t bore the ever-loving crap out of me as the majority of such things are wont to do. ‘Feed The Worm’ is the antithesis of the opener, staccato riff attack and a (possibly subconscious) nod to the heshers in the triumphant 0:29-0:44 section, all anchored by a rhythm section reminiscent of CRETIN […]

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