Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Album Reviews

Album Review: Dragonforce – Warp Speed Warriors

‘Astro Warrior Anthem’ begins satisfyingly enough, Marc Hudson seeming for all the world like a rather bored Klaus Meine, but it all goes to pot less than a minute in when the noodle factory opens for business, Li and Totman clocking in for some true tweedly-dee runs that should be jaw-dropping but don’t even sound as if they were created by humans. Sure, I get it, “fastest band in the world”, blah blah blah. But there’s exactly zero emotion conjured in the entire song, a carbon copy of 95% of what DRAGONFORCE has done up until now. ‘Power Of The […]

Music News

U.S. Heavy Metal Legends ATTACKER Celebrate 40th Anniversary with New Album, The God Particle

One of the early bastions of true U.S. metal, New ATTACKER is back to celebrate their 40th anniversary on The God Particle, a triumphant, eight-song classic metal offering! The new album will be released on CD, vinyl, and digital formats through Cruz Del Sur Music on April 12. Watch ‘The Mighty Have Fallen’ New Jersey heavy metal legends ATTACKER are celebrating their 40th anniversary in 2024. It’s a milestone marked by their influential 1985 Battle At Helm’s Deep debut and 1988 The Second Coming sophomore effort, as well as post-2001 reformation full-lengths like 2004’s Soul Taker and 2006’s The Unknown […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Darkestrah – Nomad

A fierce wind is blowing from the steppes once more. I hear thundering hooves on the horizon…DARKESTRAH has returned! I’ve loved this unusual band since hearing their masterpiece, The Great Silk Road, but they’ve been quiet the last few years. The silence is shattered with Nomad. This is one of the great black metal bands, with such a memorable, time-lost sound. Only the best can conjure up a true feeling of being from another time and place and DARKESTRAH have done this like no other. Yes, the style here is similar to The Great Silk Road and Turan. I hope […]

Music News

Everything Is Noise Premieres ‘Spun In The Dark’ From Ohpen Arms; Lying Beside You Debut To See Release March 15th

“OHPEN AHRMS are Journey if they lived long enough to see themselves become the villain. Sitting somewhere between heavy progressive rock and shoegaze, OHPEN AHRMS harken to a golden age of theatrical rock and iconic riffs, complete with anthemic power and imagery of grand destruction.” – Everything Is Noise Everything Is Noise is currently streaming ‘Spun In The Dark’, the latest single from Chicago’s OHPEN AHRMS. The track comes off the band’s debut album, Lying Beside You, set for independent release on March 15th. OHPEN AHRMS worships at the altar of heavy progressive rock and 1980s/’90s album-oriented rock romanticisms. Songs […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Messiah – Christus Hypercubus

MESSIAH was one of the first metal bands to cross my hears from Switzerland (yes, yes, the mighty CORONER, a little-known band named HELLHAMMER that turned into an even lesser-known band called CELTIC FROST, we know). There was always something quirkily special about MESSIAH, though. From the low-slung proto-doom/death of ‘Space Invaders’, to the utterly bonkers yet melodic ‘The Dentist’ of the debut to the complete about-face that was Extreme Cold Weather and that curious polar bear on the cover, MESSIAH was just different. Fast forward to 2024, the regrettable loss of vocalist Andy Kaina certainly still haunting after the […]

Music News

BLIGHTED EYE Release Video For ‘In Enmity’

BLIGHTED EYE present an offering of brutal metal and eerie atmospheres in their new single ‘In Enmity’. Accompanied with dark and macabre visuals, the progressive death/black metal outfit explores grief and loss. The band comments:“4 years since their debut EP, BLIGHTED EYE have returned with a music video for their newest single, ‘In Enmity’. Filmed and directed by Karl Whinnery of the bands VINTERSEA and LIGATURE MARKS, the video juxtaposes the bands’ ferocious performance with the agony of loss. Both crushingly heavy and haunting, the song was mixed, mastered, and produced by Alex Sedin (WHITE WARD, ANACHRONISM) and is a […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Ihsahn – Ihsahn

I mean, really, in 2024, what point is there in backstory? If you’re into metal/extreme music whatsoever, you’re at the very least aware of IHSAHN, and his history. If not, a quick search will provide such, but let’s focus, as I’m sure he would desire, on the music/art, which is why we’re discussing him at all. For IHSAHN’s eighth – though all of his releases have an element of the forward-thinking, and he has always been seen as the most “experimentally-minded” member of EMPEROR, for better or worse – he’s chosen to pull out all stops and present the project […]

Music News

TOMORROW’S RAIN Announces New Album, Ovdan, Feat. Guests From Mayhem, Dark Funeral, Mercyful Fate & More

Israeli gothic doom metal band TOMORROW’S RAIN announces their 2nd album, Ovdan, will be released on April 19th with AOP Records. The highly anticipated record the region’s rising band features guest collaborators from Mayhem, Sol Invictus, Dark Funeral, Mercyful Fate and Sisters of Mercy to name a few. Commenting on the impending record, the band states: “We are excited to announce our upcoming second full length album, Ovdan, to be released via A.O.P Records in April. …the album was written and recorded during a dark period in our lives and the creative process was in fact our cure to get […]

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 […]

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