Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Album Reviews

Album Review: The Medea Project – Kharon

THE MEDEA PROJECT lists its beginning as 2003, however, the UK duo’s first long-player didn’t arrive until 2020’s Sisyphus. Enjoyable, succinct, thinking neither too highly of itself, nor too headily about the sound it was crafting, the band – while not going leagues beyond in a search for a singular sound – used economy to its advantage on the debut. EPs Southern Echoes (2021) and Reflections (2023) acted as sonic travelogues, showing that THE MEDEA PROJECT was beginning to search its own heart to discover what blood flowed through. Anguished vocals submerged in a wet fog moan/cry from behind the […]

Music News

RAVINE: new track, ‘Conjure’, available now, new album coming on Ripple Music

Portland, Oregon’s new masters of sludge metal RAVINE share the punishing second track off their forthcoming debut album, Chaos And Catastrophes, due out June 20th on Ripple Music. Get punched in the guts by the sludge power of ‘Conjure’ With a lineup of scene veterans that punches well above its weight, this hard-charging quintet delivers a whiplash-inducing blend of hardcore sludge metal and swampy doom blues packed with swagger, sinister grooves, brilliant sorrowful twin guitar harmonies, and gritty Bourbon-soaked vocals, which should comes as an absolute must-hear for fans of Down, Crowbar and Corrosion Of Conformity. Don’t miss RAVINE’s previous […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Employed To Serve – Fallen Star

Energy…it’s the one thing that keeps EMPLOYED TO SERVE afloat and not sinking into a sea of modern metal mediocrity. I noted the same thing in my review of their last record, Conquering. You could tell they put a lot of genuine fire into their playing and so you could forgive moments of banal cliché. The same thing goes for Fallen Star, except this record sounds somewhat bigger and more ambitious. But in terms of style, ETS is still trying to be a bit of everything to everybody. Within the grooves of this record, you’ll find balls-out modern thrash, touches […]

Music News

BIND TORTURE KILL Unleash Harrowing Visual For ‘Fétide’

High-octane hardcore unit BIND TORTURE KILL have unleashed the music video for their track ‘Fétide’ a searing cut from their latest full-length album, Sauvagerie. True to its name, ‘Fétide’ is a festering blast of sonic brutality – an ever-evolving composition where no riff is played more than twice, save for the crushing final passage. The track refuses to settle, instead spiraling through dissonance and controlled chaos with surgical precision. Lyrically, the band plunges listeners into the grotesque mindscape of a deformed man imprisoned and paraded as a sideshow attraction, exposing humanity’s darkest voyeuristic instincts. The accompanying video amplifies this narrative […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Deathblow – Open Season [EP]

The Salt Lake City hooligans return with a new EP, Open Season. Quality over quantity, natch, bro. With members named Holger, Gunk, Grob and Smelly, DEATHBLOW’s sounding a bit like a UK82 punk/Oi! band, but I’m here for it as Grob’s three-count kicks off ‘Open Season’. Think a slower-paced EXODUS circa Impact Is Imminent, but with tasty blues leads at the start, only to crash headlong into a hardcore-fueled rant. The train keeps chug-a-lug-alooing, meaty riffs and Holger’s bark resembling MADBALL’s Freddy at times in ‘Deny Defend Dispose’. The bass-heavy ‘Tormentor’ and ‘Never Again’, with its disjointed time signatures, prove […]

Music News

PSYCROPTIC Signs To Metal Blade Records; ‘Architects Of Extinction’ Video/Single Now Playing + Band To Kick Off Australian/European Summer Tour

Metal Blade Records is pleased to welcome Tasmanian death metal behemoths PSYCROPTIC to its esteemed roster for the release of their forthcoming new full-length. Australia is home to innumerable death metal bands. Few make their way beyond these shores, and fewer still garner global respect. Out of those, only one has maintained that position for a full 25 years: Australia’s finest, PSYCROPTIC. When the history of technical metal is viewed in years to come, the books will show that PSYCROPTIC is responsible for a hefty slice of the genre. The band blasted into the deepest underground in the late ‘90s, […]

Music News

DEADGUY: Sign to Relapse & Announce Near-Death Travel Services Out June 27

Pre-Order / Watch / Listen After DEADGUY pulled a Lazarus, the infamous metalcore pioneers reunited on stage to prove that a few decades of dust couldn’t keep them from tearing into audiences like old times. But there’s a big difference between playing the classics for nostalgic fans and risking your legacy with a new album. The band innately understood how heavy and deranged a follow-up would need to be – and that’s exactly what they bring with their new LP, Near-Death Travel Services, incoming June 27th via Relapse Records. First, a brief history of DEADGUY: the New Jersey quartet of […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Rum Runners – Wreck And Revere [EP]

Well, ALESTORM’s gone to shite long ago, SWASHBUCKLE’s last yawnfest was a song about the movie Starship Troopers, and YE BANISHED PRIVATEERS – while fantastic – aren’t what I’d call metal, so it’s about time for another pirate-themed crew, aye? RUM RUNNERS think so, returning after 2015’s The Quest For Mead with Wreck And Revere, new crewmates aboard, and ready to (hopefully) hoist my not so Jolly but quite formidable Roger. ‘In Sirens’ Wake’ eschews the trappings of for a feisty, thrash-injected thrust of the prow into the open seas, a bit of EDGUY (sans comedic tomfoolery) in their delivery, […]

Music News

AGANOOR releases ‘Emerald Lake’ Single, Doomerism to be released June 6th via My Kingdom Music

A new reality is emerging in the Italian Doom scene. These are the Romans AGANOOR who present a new track taken from Doomerism, their debut album out on June 6th. The track we reveal to you is ‘Emerald Lake’. The official video realized by Chiara Fornalè can be admired on Youtube With influences as diverse as CATHEDRAL, GOATSNAKE, TYPE O NEGATIVE, DANZIG, TIAMAT, AGANOOR moves from the Eternal City creating an oppressive Doom Metal wrapped in a gothic breeze, and blended with the retro tones of the rawest of Stoner Rock. The song ‘Emerald Lake’, available as digital single too, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Overdrivers – Glory Or Nothing

Ah, this is just what the doctor ordered…and what this doctor needed! Hard crunchy rock that’s easy on the brain and tough on the neck muscles. Not sure where these guys are from, but they’ve come up with an album full of high adrenaline metallic rock in the vein of AC/DC, SKID ROW, BULLET and more! ‘Kings Of The Road’ sets the stage beautifully with a cracking AC/DC style rocker with touches of old ACCEPT tossed in. Adrien Desquirez has a snotty, nasal sounding vocal that would be a problem for any style of music but this kind. For this […]

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