Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Music News

Sijjeel unleash the death metal insanity of Affiliation Of Horrid Containment

After the scenes of carnage left by last year’s two track EP, The Concurrent Cycle, SIJJEEL have returned once again with more sounds of otherworldly horror – this time a full album of mind-breaking, soul-burning death metal of the very darkest hues. More deeply steeped in the essence of terror than ever before, SIJJEEL have invoked the ineffable, the unspeakable…the Affiliation Of Horrid Containment! Drinking deeply from a well of inspiration whose waters are black with the blood of old gods and the effluence of devils, SIJJEEL have summoned into existence an album of horror and madness such as other […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Slugcrust – Discharge(d) [EP]

When you consider that SLUGCRUST’s two EPs, full length album and split release with Floridians SWAMP clock in at under 1 hour, you know what you’re getting with Discharge(d). ‘The Antitrust’ is audio warfare ala PIG DESTROYER, pure and visceral. ‘Feral Natural’ stalks with menace, a giardia-infected WOORMS while ‘V4’ packs a bass-fueled fury, a band always existing in that split second before the whole thing implodes. It’s with the title track, though, that the band’s unfuckwithable knack for writing riffs and beats that chisel and pound their way into your skull comes to fruition. Ever wondered what the tines […]

Music News

KVAEN: Swedish Melodic Death/Black Metallers To Release The Formless Fires Full-Length June 21st

KVAEN will release their third album, and first for Metal Blade Records, The Formless Fires, on June 21st. There are many great extreme metal bands in Sweden, but only one from Kalix. This remote beauty spot near the Finnish border, on the northernmost shores of the Baltic, is home to Jacob Björnfot, creative mastermind behind melodic black/death metal project, KVAEN. A sumptuous but bitingly intense exploration of beauty and violence, KVAEN’s The Formless Fires is a melodic black metal masterwork radiating an inspirational sense of place. Even more than 2020’s folky, speed metal-infused debut The Funeral Pyre or 2022’s compelling, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: DÅÅTH – The Deceivers

DÅÅTH returns after a smattering of 2023 singles, 14 years after their self-titled album left nary a blip on most folks’ radar with The Deceivers. That the album features one original member must be noted, as well as that the quintet has expanded, now including a third guitarist, as well as longtime vocalist Sean Zatorsky. So let’s see what fruits are born of sonic upheaval… ‘No Rest No End’ began melodically, until suddenly a wash of discombobulating keys broke any sense of fluidity. Thankfully, this was short-lived, a relatively catchy riff pattern devolving into groove metal grunt-fest, and then – […]

Music News

Grand Demise of Civilization to Release The Blaze of Abaddon on June 4 via Ordovician Records

GRAND DEMISE OF CIVILIZATION is set to release The Blaze Of Abaddon, their fourth album of Epic Hell Metal, on June 4 through Ordovician Records. The album will be available on compact disc, cassette, and digital formats. A lyric video for the album’s first single, ‘Silencer’, is available now at THIS LOCATION The song is also available on Bandcamp Formed in 2008, GRAND DEMISE OF CIVILIZATION quickly became a notable fixture of the Minnesota metal scene. Playing a brand of blackened death metal both melodic and brutal they garnered attention for their speed, intensity and precision. Typically long-form, their music […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Caldwell – Caldwell

‘No Flowers Today’ blooms, funky-slinky bassline and snap drums buoying a jaunty guitar and Caldwell’s sugared vocals. A square of slightly less worn and ragged fabric cut cleanly from the multicolored robe of SCREAMING TREES’ Uncle Anesthesia, this opener is an ideal introduction to this self-titled (not really a) debut. Southern California harmonies and a bit of a Country/Western tone to the guitar add a bit of that Laurel Canyon vibe to ‘Love Confession’, while ‘Lonely Man’ carries a Lennon/McCartney sensibility ably, the cynicism of John tempered by the pop flavorings of Paul from those turbulent final BEATLES years when […]

Music News

DYMNA LOTVA release full Dark Easter Metal Meeting concert video

DYMNA LOTVA release a multi-camera recording of their complete live performance at this year’s Dark Easter Metal Meeting in Munich, Germany on March 30, 2024. View the full stream at THIS LOCATION DYMNA LOTVA comment: “The best Easter is Dark Easter!”, vocalist Katsiaryna “Nokt Aeon” Mankevich enthuses. “We hope that you will like this video as much as we enjoyed playing in Munich!” The Belarus band has more concerts to come and all currently confirmed upcoming dates can be viewed further below. DYMNA LOTVA are performing in support of their current album Зямля Пад Чорнымі Крыламі: Кроў (“The Land Under […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Stargazer – Bound By Spells [EP]

Initially released on Hallowe’en 2023 by Nuclear War Now! Productions on Vinyl + Digital formats, STARGAZER’s Bound By Spells EP sees its CD release nearly seven months later via Personal Records. The Adelaide alchemists (or assault brigade, depending on the form their music takes) have been around since the mid-‘90s, spewing forth four albums, splits and EPs, which doesn’t seem like much, when you get right down to it, especially considering the tomblike silence between 2014’s A Merging To The Boundless and Psychic Secretions of seven years after. Still and all, Bound By Spells finds the trident every bit as […]

Music News

Fortress Festival unveils Fortress Forum conference

Fortress Festival unveils Fortress Forum, a unique metal conference with Tom G. Warrior, Wolves In The Throne Room, Cult Never Dies and more! A unique opportunity for festival attendees to hear artists talk about their careers and experiences. Participants include Tom G. Warrior (Triptykon, Celtic Frost), Cedar Serpent (Wolves In The Throne Room), Dayal Patterson (Cult Never Dies), Ralph Schmidt (Ultha), The Watcher (Fen, Fellwarden), Der Weg Einer Freiheit and Gaerea Side-event to take place at a 300-capacity theatre room at Scarborough Spa and available only for Fortress Festival ticket holders Scarborough, UK; 28.04.24: Fortress Festival, the highly anticipated UK […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Heavy Temple – Garden Of Heathens

Philly’s HEAVY TEMPLE are listed as “heavy psychedelic doom” and there is truth in that. But on Garden Of Heathens, it’s also true to say that they are an ass-kicking heavy metal band. This record has the ability to reach beyond its simple description and venture into other realms of heaviness. This is a revelation all the way around. Opening salvo ‘Extreme Indifference To Life’ is thick and sludgy doom all around, kind of like WINDHAND but not quite as fuzzed out. That even extends to the mournful vocals of High Priestess Nighthawk. But she’s no mere Dorthea Cottrell knockoff, […]

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