Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Album Reviews

Album Review: DIPYGUS – Dipygus

While death metal was born swathed in gore (I mean, it is death metal, right?), since the mid-‘80s the genre has morphed into subgenre after sub-subgenre after sub-subgenre, resulting in…well, if we’re going to take brutal death, goregrind, and gore metal as examples…does anything truly shock and appall anymore? When’s the last time a song’s lyrics truly creeped you out? When’s the last time those lyrics joined with the music to create something utterly terrifying? Returns DIPYGUS with its third full-length, ready to spew blood, choler and phlegm in a fountain of yellow bile ‘cross us all, ‘Perverse Termination (Bulb […]

Music News

Wax Donut Presents: Goat, A Tribute To The Jesus Lizard; No Echo Premieres New Tracks From Wipes And Trigger Cut

Wax Donut Presents: Goat, a compilation covering the seminal album by THE JESUS LIZARD, hits the streets on March 15th via Wax Donut Records (formerly Black Donut Records). With the album now just a few weeks from release, No Echo is hosting a double premiere of two new tracks from the LP. Goat brings together rising stars of punk, metal, and jazz from across the US and Europe to pay homage to one of the most important punk rock albums of the 20th century. The compilation features Neon Kittens and Dead Mammals from the UK, Kuhn Fu (featuring Michael Rene […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Black Absinthe – On Earth Or In Hell

BLACK ABSINTHE was born a little over a decade ago, yet On Earth Or In Hell is only its second full-length. While not necessarily a cause for concern, this will be a sure test of the sophomore slump most bands experience on their second release. ‘Dead Queen’ begins with a snappy riff/rhythm combo, but it seems a bit overproduced for the heavy metal/punk hybrid the trio is shooting for. Still and all, Cerre’s vocals are like a less hammered Lemmy, the mix is full, and none of the instruments are muscling the others out of the way, so let’s call […]

Music News

HANDS OF GORO: No Clean Singing Premieres ‘Demonizer’ Single; Eponymous Debut LP Drops On March 1st

‘Demonizer’ is the latest single from Bay Area heavy metal trio HANDS OF GORO, formed by members of Spirit Adrift, Nite, Slough Feg, and former live members of Carcass and Angel Witch. The song is now streaming exclusively at No Clean Singing, preceding the band’s eponymous debut LP, nearing release March 1st Stream HANDS OF GORO’s ‘Demonizer’ HANDS OF GORO formed in November 2016 with the shared desire to strike fear of the infamous half-man/half-dragon into the heart of humanity. Hailing from opposite sides of the pond, founding guitarist Tom Draper (Spirit Adrift, ex-Carcass and Angel Witch-live) and bassist Adrian […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Cancer Christ – God Is Violence

I remember the anti-poser crusades of the ’80s metal scene. Underground thrashers declaring war on sanitized hair metal and guys that spent more time with mirrors than instruments. This was quite a defining moment of those days, with sides taken and lines drawn. I think we need a new anti-poser crusade in the ’20s. Everywhere you look there are cosplay bands full of guys playing dress up, wearing masks and raiding the Spirit Halloween store for cheap makeup. A lot of these new-wave posers are supposedly in the harder sides of metal. I’m about as bored with monster bands wearing […]

Music News

FURZE releases new single ‘Post Mortem Trippin’’

Norwegian black psych metal act FURZE released a new single, ‘Post Mortem Trippin”, from its upcoming eighth album. Entitled Caw Entrance, the new album will be released on 5 April 2024 under license to Devoted Art Propaganda from Polytriad Fingerprints. Stream the new track: D-A-P.org | Spotify | YouTube Pre-orders for Caw Entrance can be placed now via Devoted Art Propaganda and FURZE’s Bandcamp and Polytriad Fingerprints. Caw Entrance will be available in CD, LP, cassette and digital formats. The release will be accompanied by a new T-shirt design. The pre-orders will also include an exclusive A2 poster. Previously FURZE […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Obsidian Tongue – The Stone Heart [EP]

OBSIDIAN TONGUE weaves into ‘The Stone Heart’, and we, standing in a clearing while gazing toward the shimmering line of grey rain that falls steady, sure on the border with the surrounding forest. The storm shifts, turns inward, closer, then enters us, wreaking havoc. Suspended yet descending slowly, ‘Winter Child’ is ache and melancholia, yet a stark look at the flesh and eyes that gaze back at one from the mirror of truth – unfoolable and unforgiving. Amid the droning vocal harmonies and harsh howl, we bow, scrawling our destiny on frozen ground. Instrumental ‘Bear At The Tree Of Light’ […]

Music News

ARÐ unveil first video single and details of new album

Monastic Doom inventors ARÐ return with their highly anticipated sophomore full-length Untouched By Fire. As a first glimpse of their new masterpiece, the Northumbrian band reveal the lyric video ‘Cursed To Nothing But Patience’ as the first single taken from the forthcoming new album, for which the release date April 26, 2024 has been carved in runes. On Untouched By Fire, ARÐ narrate the tale of another Northern saint, the Anglo-Saxon warrior-king Oswald, also called Whiteblade, who united the lands of Bernicia and Deira, and reigned over the thus newly created Kingdom of Northumbria between the years 633 and 642. […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Big Scenic Nowhere – The Waydown

While I remember digging BIG SCENIC NOWHERE’s initial two EPs, Dying On The Mountain and especially 2020’s more prog-tinged Lavender Blues, I’ll admit to letting 2020 debut LP Vision Beyond Horizon and The Long Morrow of the following year slip under my radar, always “intending to” go back and investigate what the foursome could do within the space of an album. I never did, though, so no better time than now to check in. Opener and title track, ‘The Waydown’ doesn’t so much arrive as materialize before closed eyes and open ears, the vocal harmonies and flowing, yet purposeful momentum […]

Music News

ULTHAR: Blackened Death Metal Trio Announces First US Tour In Five Years

Blackened death metal trio ULTHAR will return to stages this Spring on an eleven-date US tour. The journey commences in Oakland, California on April 26th and concludes with a performance at Norwest Terror Fest in Seattle, Washington on May 9th. The tour marks the band’s first tour since 2019! Tickets are on sale now. See confirmed dates below. ULTHAR will be touring in support of their critically adored Anthronomicon and Helionomicon full lengths, release last year via 20 Buck Spin. Anthronomicon embodies the continued progression of ULTHAR’s mastery over its art. From the opening blasts and twisting mania of ‘Cephalophore’, […]

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