Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Short Sharp Shocks

Consider this a proving ground.
For the up and coming, a gauntlet to be run through.
For the established, the same.
A home for Demos and extremely short EPs.
Stringent rules must be adhered to (by me), still in formation, and to be shared once set in stone. Or not.
But you’ll figure it out. Or not.

Short Sharp Shocks

Cartilage – Tales From The Entrails: A Necrology [EP]

The San Francisco slaughtercrew of CARTILAGE has been quiet for a few years, so Tales From The Entrails: A Necrology sizzles when it hits the pan like flesh sliced straight off the bone. The ‘Official Trailer’ is how an intro should be done, and ‘Frothed Vomit Slosh’ roils ‘n’ boils with DESULTORY-styled glee, maniacally messy. The guitar tone alone sells ‘Globs Of Glimmering Gore’, vocal violator Mark Wallace carrying a bit of Mille Petrozza sneer in his spewage, reminding us how much death/grind truly owes to thrash. ‘Ape-u-tator’ – aside from being brilliantly titled – is catchier than an STD […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Balefire – Balefire [MLP]

The keys of ‘Black Sun’ dissolve into the caustic eruption that is ‘Sands Of Gemini’, bassist Chuck Sherwood and his interplanetary cohort managing to somehow be knuckle-dragging and technically mind-bending simultaneously. ‘Star-Born Revolt’ is convoluted, chaotic and cerebral, pre-Obscura GORGUTS on bath salts, when you could sense the obliteration of senses that was that album on the horizon. ‘Barbaric Rebirth’ is especially concise, yet covering so much in so short a space, so that the nearly 4 minutes of ‘Lord Of The Red Lands’ seems almost epic in scope. This is death metal birthed from some alternate dimension where entire […]

Short Sharp Shocks

EX DEO – Year Of The Four Emperors [EP]

EX DEO has always been a band with no reason to exist to my ears, largely as it’s literally KATAKLYSM with one extra member. I will say this for opener ‘Galba’, though; it’s more enjoyable than most of what’s come from either band in over a decade. ‘Otho’ is lackluster, basic and by-the-numbers, while ‘Vitellius’ begins with a fucking stellar low-end groove, and does return variations on this from time to time. Too little too late at this point, though. Obviously a vanity project from its start, EX DEO continues its own revelry in glut with Year Of The Bored […]

Short Sharp Shocks

NECRONOMICON EX MORTIS – The Mother Of Death [EP]

Churning out two EPs last year and as many this year, adding up to the playing time of pretty much a single album, Chicagoans NECRONOMICON EX MORTIS return with The Mother Of Death. ‘Trick Or Treat’ leads, a beefed up RUMPLESTILSKIN GRINDER blended with ACID WITCH vocals, obsession with ‘70s/’80s horror flicks in full force. While the drums could stand a bit more heft in the mix, and the guitars tend to get buried in the bass-heavy mix, ‘Infestation’ and the title track are punchy and chock fulla riffs. The ambient ‘Itchy Tasty’ is surprisingly worthwhile, and ‘Salem’s Lot’ conjures […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Noroth / Grave Infestation – Split

When Washington State deathmongers NOROTH and GRAVE INFESTATION of British Columbia get together, there’s gonna be mayhem. NOROTH begins with ‘Trepanation Ritual’, positively spewing bile and fueled with an d-beat urgency, The Cult Is Alive DARKTHRONE, but more meaty, more burled, more gnarly and destructive; memorable in the way getting smacked in the cranium with a ball peen hammer is memorable. Instantly overpowering, GRAVE INFESTATION wields riff and convulsing rhythm with an uncompromising dexterity within the ‘Necroslaughterhouse’, sheep-bleating (bleeding?) leads and time changes aplenty, daring us to latch onto a time signature for more than 10 seconds, knowing we’ll fail […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Atom Driver – Occupants [EP]

By my count Occupants is ATOM DRIVER’s sixth EP, despite the band being around since 2016 with nary a full-length to show for it. Doesn’t matter, though, as the title track immediately jettisons me back to the days of snagging 7” from record stores by bands that fired off a couple-few songs at a time, little sonic pioneers, out into the frontier of independent shops, squats and bookstores. Shades of SNAPCASE’s more accessible work, JAWBREAKER’s Bivouac shove us headlong into ‘Say Anything You Want’, the snarling guitar recalling the abrasion of CAVE IN, but again, filtered through the lens of […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Trail Of Tears – Winds Of Disdain [EP]

Norwegian Sympho-gothers TRAIL OF TEARS were always at the very least reliable for being TOT, and now, after just over a decade, these early progenitors of the “Napalm sound” make their return on the Winds Of Disdain. New female vocalist Ailyn shines amid the gruffness of Thorsen on the title track, the band seeming breathing, alive, as if the silence has been a time of true reevaluation and this move forward purposeful, focused. I would’ve liked to see the melodic, subtle ‘Take These Tears’ continue in that way through the whole tune, but ‘No Colors Left’ bounces off the walls, […]

Short Sharp Shocks

ViOS – SlaveForm [EP]

While the words “progressive instrumental metal” often cause a nervous tic when first heard together, that’s what Steve Lewis is on about with his ViOS project. ‘Druj’ captivates from the start, as if NEVERMORE had made more use of keyboards, or PENAL COLONY had made more of guitars. TRIBE AFTER TRIBE percussion, and time signature leaps that actually make sense. More accessible on its face, ‘Abort’ is no less interesting, and the beauty of what’s on offer here is that it wasn’t written for vocals, enabling Lewis true free rein. ‘Saturation’ breathes out sonic cosmology, quite darkly alluring. I’m not […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Cathari – It Will Hurt The Entire Time You Are Alive

‘Philadelphia’ is a steamroller bristling with railroad spikes and vitriol, while ‘It Will Hurt’ is the relentless rage of a parking lot fight. Where the track – and this quartet – wins overall, though, is the shifting from the band’s doomed roots into the jagged realm of Hydra Head Records and Tortuga Recordings ala KEELHAUL and THE GERSCH without losing themselves in the process. ‘Weight’ is neither catharsis nor purge, more a failed exorcism of the doubt and mistrust brought on my disappointment in self and others, yet somehow, it’s healing to know you’re not the only one. Noise as […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Halcyon Way – Night Crawling [EP]

ProgPower USA hometown boys HALCYON WAY return with… Okay, I understand no one wants to hear another version of ‘Smoke On The Water’, but a MILEY CYRUS cover? ‘Night Crawling’ reeks of THEATRE OF TRAGEDY’s techno dreck, tossing in a bit of ‘White Wedding’ for extra tee hee hees. ‘Insufferable’ lives up to its name, everything from jumpdafucup moments to MOTLEY CRÜE’s Generation Swine to DRAGONFORCE-Lite (if you can believe that) gets a run-through. It’s only with ‘Stand For Something’ that the HALCYON WAY we know and appreciate allows us a glimmer of hope for upcoming material. Even for an […]

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