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: Lonndom – Hågkomster från nordliga nejder & Norrskenritual

I first came across LONNDOM – or rather, LONNDOM came across me – courtesy of its debut release Falen Fran Norr. And here’s why that’s special to me. Not only had the duo crafted a sound the likes of which was at once new and familiar, but the album was the first release on Nordvis Produktion. The label’s credo of “Poor Music For Poor People” could not have rung more true than it did in LONNDOM, alternately frigid as Winter and soothing as Spring rain, often within the same song. And now, 12 years hence, we see the re-issue of […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: JUDICIARY – Surface Noise

JUDICIARY, a 5-piece metallic hardcore band from Lubbock, Texas, brings the breakdowns on their debut full length album Surface Noise. The album rips open immediately with ‘Social Crusade’. It is a defiant call to violence and action. The riffing has the definite chug and bounce you would expect from any hardcore outfit, but I feel the meat of this album is more the words and message it is trying to convey. The message is defiance, violence, and burning down the old guard to make way for revolution. I can already feel the march of anarchist and slam dancers flocking to […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: HOT LUNCH – 
Seconds

So, maybe I’m not as jaded and cynical when it comes to the state of modern music as I come across when a band like HOT LUNCH can impress me the way it has with the aptly-titled Seconds. Having missed out on the band’s 2013 debut, and with nothing more to go on than a Julian Cope comparison to MC5, I pressed Play and the snap-mare rhythm of ‘Smoke Ring’ flung my ears into grooved out rawk recalling the mighty – and mightily underrated – DIXIE WITCH and FIVE HORSE JOHNSON, while sounding directly like neither. Around halfway through, the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: FRENZY – 
Blind Justice

In the interest of full disclosure, my enjoyment of comic books during childhood and up to today was/is limited to the classic G.I. Joe, Judge Dredd, Werewolf By Night and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series. Heavy Metal, though, hunted me down around age 12-13, and I either went willingly, or am still in some Stockholm Syndrome-like “phase” that hasn’t ended over three decades later. And, thus, when FRENZY’s debut album came across my desk, the idea of a true Heavy Metal band inspired by comics at least caught my interest, which means I’m about to either really enjoy or really hate […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: GRASS – Fresh Grass

Brooklyn’s GRASS is billowing with smoke and charm with the physical release of their first EP, Fresh Grass. They have the heavy, SABBATH-infused riffs you would come to expect from a band of its namesake, but I was surprised at how big and catchy the choruses were. The EP starts with ‘Amnesia/My Wall’, and that opening riff could come right off SLEEP’s Holy Mountain. The song moves on, Phil Anton’s wail kicks in at full force, and I am hooked. ‘Black Clouds’ rolls in, and I get this mix of Stevie Ray Vaughan and THE REVEREND BIZARRE. This ended up […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: THE MUNSENS 
- Unhanded

THE MUNSENS…a strange name for an unconventional band. The name has been floating around for years but this is the first time I’ve been able to connect any music to it. It was not what I was expecting, that’s for sure. These days, that’s a good thing, and having a name that you can’t connect to any particular style of music is also refreshing… This Denver band plays some fairly epic material. The first track ‘Dirge (For Those To Come)’ caught me off guard right away…a melancholy, almost post-metal beginning that really does sound like a dirge that soon morphs […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Spirits Of Fire – Spirits Of Fire

If metal bands were ranked and judged like dogs at fancy dog shows, the bloodline and pedigree of SPIRITS OF FIRE would have them winning “Best In Show” hands down. Consider the metallic breeding of bass messiah Steve DiGiorgio, lead guitar phenom Chris Caffery, drum wizard Mark Zonder and oh yeah, the vocals of a guy called Ripper who has sung with a few bands you may have heard of. There is no way that SPIRITS OF FIRE should fail with this purebred talent. I cannot say that the self-titled debut doesn’t have some awe inspiring moments, but there is […]

Album Reviews

ALBUM REVIEW: HORNDAL – Remains

Long live HORNDAL! Their debut album, Remains, brings sludgy, punchy hardcore that almost had me put my fist through a wall just to let out some energy. Remains tells the true horror story of the devil’s destruction of their hometown of Horndal in the 1970s. That story is an interesting read, and I encourage you to read it while listening through this album. The album opens with the single they have been promoting, ‘Wasteland’, and really sets up the rest of the album. This is an anthem to fight for your life, a true call to arms, and I cannot […]

Album Reviews

ALBUM REVIEW: Funereal Presence – Achatius

One man band FUNERAL PRESENCE has given us another reminder that it’s the most off the wall and batshit crazy bands that are the most entertaining. The thing I will remember most about this oddball outsider unit is their use of bells…the clear glorious ringing of tubular bells and the earthy clank of the almighty cowbell. Over the course of these four epic and mind-dizzying tunes, you will hear both kind of bells used to brilliant effect.  The use of bells stands out, but really Funereal Presence deliver crazed extreme metal that is unlike anything else out there. Each of […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Ossuarium – Living Tomb

Certain kinds of death metal are the perfect accompaniment to a walk among the dead. The kind that mixes a suffocating doom with riffs that rot from the head down. Hailing from the fertile Portland scene, OSSUARIUM creates a potent if predictable serenade for your visit to the catacombs. All the expected boxes are checked here. The “cavernous” roaring vocals, the thick and slimy riffs reeking of INCANTATION, even the ghastly cover art of Dan Seagrave. I can’t say I was surprised by any of OSSUARIUM‘s revolting tuneage, but it will surely satisfy any underground death-head’s yearning for morbid metal. […]

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