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: 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 […]

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 […]

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