Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Album Reviews

Album Review: Ufomammut – Hidden

If you’re looking to take a chemical vacation, there’s no better band than Italy’s UFOMAMMUT to provide a soundtrack for your trip. Some might consider that statement frivolous, but I stand by it. These guys have a groove so heavy that even GOD would be spacing out to it. 2024 marks 25 years for this mega-heavy band and Hidden is a fitting landmark. Holy Timothy Leary, but this thing is THICK! I’ve heard dirty bass sounds in my time, but this takes the ever-lovin’ cake. Even in comparison with UFOMAMMUT’s prior work, this is totally abyssal. It almost doesn’t need […]

Music News

WOLFHEART Share Draconian Darkness Album Details & Launch Pre-Orders; First Digital Single, ‘Grave’, To Arrive On June 7

Summer may be just beginning, but Finnish melodic death metal maestros WOLFHEART are already looking ahead to the release of their new album Draconian Darkness. Recorded at Deep Noise Studios and produced, mixed, and mastered by the band’s long-time collaborator Saku Moilanen, the album will be released on September 6, 2024, via Reigning Phoenix Music (RPM), just as the somber season returns. The album’s first single, ‘Grave’, will be available on June 7 and captures the raw intensity of dark winter nights combined with the majestic beauty of nature. You can pre-save the track HERE Pre-order Draconian Darkness in the […]

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 […]

Music News

LES CHANTS DU HASARD: French Blackened Orchestral/Operatic Ensemble Unveils ‘Procession Du Sabbat’ Single; Fourth Album, Livre Quart, Nears June 21st Release

‘Procession Du Sabbat’ is the new single from French blackened orchestral/operatic ensemble LES CHANTS DU HASARD. The cinematic new hymn comes off the project’s grandiose new full-length, Livre Quart, set for release on June 21st. An endeavor conceptualized and composed by primary member, Hazard, LES CHANTS DU HASARD was spawned from the notion that metal is a musical style that deals with extreme emotions such as anger, violence, darkness, and despair. The ultimate objective is to initiate an aural experience of those emotions, something more than just music, that would submerge the listener. Notes Hazard, “I created LES CHANTS DU […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Noroth – Sacrificial Solace

Seattle’s NOROTH returns for it’s third attempt at sonic obliteration after the solid “enough” It Dwells Among Us of 2021 and the following year’s even more weighty Harbinger. After a brief intro, ‘Black Serpent’ begins with all the subtlety of a cage match with a six-legged goat on bath salts who also happens to think you fucked his girlfriend. It’s that level, yes; a bit of HELLHAMMER groove to the riff in spaces, but always head down, always onward. ‘Symphony Of Decay’ is more straight-ahead death metal in execution but loses none of its energy or enjoyability for its simplicity. […]

Music News

TRELLDOM ink contract with Prophecy Productions

Norwegian cult black metal act TRELLDOM have inked their signatures under a multi-album contract with Prophecy Productions. TRELLDOM will release their fourth full-length and long-awaited successor to Til minne… (2007) via the label this year. TRELLDOM comment: “It is important to find the right collaboration partners as well as someone who respects and partly understands what we want to convey at all times, which Martin and the people in his company do – art must always come first!”, guitarist Stian Kårstad emphatically stresses. “Therefore as TRELLDOM we are very much looking forward to continuing our journey with Prophecy Productions.” Prophecy […]

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 […]

Music News

PENTAGRAM sign to Heavy Psych Sounds Records

Heavy Psych Sounds welcome US pioneers of doom metal PENTAGRAM to their roster for the release of their long-anticipated new studio album, as well as the reissue of their Sub-Basement and Review Your Choices albums. About signing to Heavy Psych Sounds, PENTAGRAM frontman Bobby Liebling says:“PENTAGRAM was conceived 53 years ago! We’ve seen many ups and downs and if the decades have given us anything, its wisdom. We know our new studio album is the best one we’ve ever written. We also realize that we need the perfect partner who not only understands the music but also knows the importance […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Belushi Speed Ball – Stellkira

It was my sometimes drinking buddy Johnny Vomit who first made me aware of these guys. Goofy ass crossover thrashers from Louisville, KY armed with a wild stage show, numbskull lyrics and…best of all…sizzling thrash riffs to turn your spine to jelly! Having never seen them live, I can’t speak to that part of their repertoire, but when I saw song titles like ‘Garth, Let My Family Go’, ‘My Favorite Color Is Pizza’ and ‘Tater Tot Eyes’, I got some uneasy flashbacks to the metalcore of the early 2000s, which wrote the book on idiotic “ironic” song titles. Well, BELUSHI […]

Music News

Mamaleek Share ‘Ancient Souls, No Longer Sorrowful’

Loss has informed MAMALEEK’s newest full-length album, Vida Blue. Tragedy struck in March of 2023 when the band lost a longtime friend and member, keyboardist Eric Livingston, leaving the group, which began as a duo of two brothers and later expanded to a five-piece, with only four members. Despite this profound loss, MAMALEEK persevered, performing as a quartet at various festivals, including a ground-shaking performance at the 2023 edition of Roadburn. Following, MAMALEEK returned to the studio to create new material that appropriately reflects their journey through loss and honors their fallen comrade. The resulting album draws inspiration from the […]

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