Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Album Review: Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol – Big Dumb Riffs

For its all-important third album, Austin trio RICKHSAW BILLIE’S BURGER PATROL have, if possible, gone even more primal with Big Dumb Riffs. ‘Clowntown’ spot welds Bleach-era NIRVANA to PIXIES, while ‘1800EATSHIT’ plows grooves deeper than Ron Jeremy in the ‘80s. Tempos may slow from time to time over the course of this abbreviated album, but I’ll be durned if the syrup-laden ground ‘n’ pound of TAD and MELVINS might have been given a run for its money with ‘Peanut Butter Snack Sticks’. ‘Whip It Around’ follows suit, injecting a bit of HELMET to the point you can – if you […]

THE DREAD CREW OF ODDWOOD: Southern California Heavy Mahogany Faction To Launch The Battle Ballads North American Tour With Týr Thursday; Fifth LP, Rust & Glory, Out Now

Southern California’s rogue heavy mahogany faction THE DREAD CREW OF ODDWOOD is stocking their galley, arsenal, and keg room, preparing to set sail on The Battle Ballads North American Tour supporting Týr alongside Trollfest and Æther Realm. The tour kicks off this Thursday, March 28th in Baltimore and will storm across the continent, THE DREAD CREW OF ODDWOOD playing on the tour through the Houston date on April 22nd. See all tour dates below and stand by for additional tours to be announced for later this year. THE DREAD CREW OF ODDWOOD w/ Týr, Trollfest, Æther Realm: 3/30/2024 Middle East […]

Besotten + Funerelic – Abyssal Synodality

Damn, the older I get the more I’m loving these little one-off split releases. Maybe it’s memories of mixtapes traded that almost made shit sound nastier once you went down to 8th gen. There two Pacific pummelers seem to thrive in such realms, BESOTTEN early on locking into a mid-‘00s GRAVE groove in ‘Anothered’. ‘Subterranean Realms Of Excrutiation’ lives up to its name, plodding and pain-inducing. FUNERELIC’s ‘Tomb Of The Necrolith’ follows the same path, but adding good many sonic convulsions along the way, all welcome, all ominous in their love of the stench-ridden. Ending with ‘Devoured In Obsidian Flame’, […]

Council Records Announces Upcoming Release of Omega Glory LP, Releases First Single

Council Records has announced that they will release the upcoming OMEGA GLORY LP, and have premiered the first single via Decibel Listen to ‘Cut Adrift’ After the darkness of 2020 passed, guitarist Brian Meehan emerged with 6 songs that were a therapy session of sorts for him. Meehan, who’s been in a ton of bands (Kill Your Idols, Celebrity Murders and Milhouse etc) needed an outlet during those dark times, and OMEGA GLORY was it. The songs were meant to just be just a recording project, but after Brian contacted his old friend and former band mate Sean McCann (Herjaza, […]

Album Review: Furze – Caw Entrance

The one and only Woe J. Reaper, the Mad Hatter of Black Metal, returns with an all-new mad tea party to mess up our perception of reality. Every form of music needs a jester, a raconteur, to shake things up. Mr. Reaper, operating under the name of FURZE, has been doing that since the late ’90s, creating an indefinable version of low-fi black metal that mixes in generous dollops of doom and warped psychedelia. It shouldn’t work…yet it does. Crazy titles and song names are part of the FURZE experience and Caw Entrance lives up to that reputation. I suspect […]

DARKTHRONE Announces New Album, It Beckons Us All, To Be Released April 26th

“A cauldron of old and epic metal beckons thee” – Fenriz An Introduction From Fenriz Watch the It Beckons Us All trailer Pioneers of a sound that changed the world. Lifelong disciples of suspense and mystery. An enigmatic duo like no other, hell-bent on haunting souls through the eternities. There are many things DARKTHRONE have been called since forming in 1986 and these are but a few, having drawn from a creative well so potent and powerful it turned them into one of Norway’s biggest musical exports. Following from their debut album Soulside Journey, the next three full-lengths, often referred […]

Album Review: Hands Of Goro – Hands Of Goro

‘Prince Of Shokan’ kicks off (and out) the jams on HANDS OF GORO’s self-titled debut here, replete with ‘70s rawk riff glory and pulsing rhythms. These three ain’t no spring chickens when it comes to bringing this sort of thing to the party, members of neo-classic metallers SLOUGH FEG, doomhounds SPIRIT ADRIFT and blackened NITE comprising the crew here. “Metal” is the operative word here, from the fast-paced ‘Demonizer’ to ‘Uncanny’ with its NWOBHM gallop (SAXON, Di’Anno-era IRON MAIDEN). The psyche-progrre-delic freakout of ‘21st Century Plague’ manages to slam some proto-punk into the mix as well. Think THE SWEET’s ‘Ballroom […]

GUILTLESS: Cvlt Nation Premieres Post-Apocalyptic ‘Dead-Eye’ Video; Thorns Debut From Band Formed By A Storm Of Light, Intronaut, Generation Of Vipers Members Out Now On Neurot Recordings

Cvlt Nation is hosting an exclusive premiere for an ominous, post-apocalyptic video for ‘Dead-Eye’ by GUILTLESS, a new band formed by members of A Storm Of Light, Intronaut, Generation Of Vipers, Battle Of Mice, and more. The song is found on the band’s debut, the Thorns EP, which was released through Neurosis’ label Neurot Recordings in February. A new voice steps forward to put our concerns and frustrations into words; that voice is GUILTLESS. Picking up where A Storm Of Light left off, GUILTLESS was born from a love of experimental rock, noise rock, early industrial, sludge, and doom. The […]

Nomura – The Silent Whisper [EP]

Right out the gate I’ve gotta worry about a djent band. Sorry, I’ve heard more than enough pissing and moaning about how I “just don’t get it”, but you know what? If releases like The Silent Whisper keep flatulating across my desk, I’m glad. NOMURA seems to revel in the masturbatory style of TESSERACT and MESHUGGAH, with no discernable tunes anywhere to be found amid the spend drying on the tissues and socks that must surely litter their space after “practice”. ‘Embrace The String’ and ‘Natural Revange’ jerk and jitter past like the band’s scared a song might actually catch […]

STEVE AUSTIN: Today Is The Day Frontman Launches Classic Outlaw Country Act

STEVE AUSTIN, the founding vocalist/guitarist for long-running visionary metal outfit Today Is The Day and renowned engineer of his Austin Enterprise studio, begins a new chapter in his musical journey, humbly unveiling his new classic outlaw country/bluegrass act. Having toured and made records since 1993, STEVE AUSTIN has recorded and produced some of the biggest hard rock and metal bands of our time, including Deadguy, Converge, Unsane, former Dead Kennedys vocalist Jello Biafra, Grammy nominated Lamb Of God, and the massive Today Is The Day catalog, among many others. But a different type of heavy vibe pours forth from his […]