Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

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’, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Stygian Crown – Funeral For A King

THIS is how you Doom! STYGIAN CROWN have written a textbook on epic slow motion metal with Funeral For A King and demonstrate just how this art should be performed. This is one of the best doom efforts of 2023 and might just slip onto my “Best Of” list for the year. This shit is heavy! Yet it is also stately and melodic…well composed and varied. The shadow of CANDLEMASS hangs deep over STYGIAN CROWN, but it’s not merely mimickry and there’s a thick burliness to the songs that exceeds what is generally heard from the Swedish masters. The title […]

Music News

DPERD new release, Choices: cover and tracklist unveiled

Choices is DPERD’s 8th album, and is going to add another wonderful and intimate piece to their incredible twenty-year career. Once again the great German photographer Lilith Terra is behind the amazing self-portrait used as cover artwork for the album because her work is the pure transposition into images of their intimate and melancholic music. The album was conceived without any pause, as a long journey into their vision of human existence and their feelings, and will consist of 18 songs. Choices Tracklist: Another Chance Go On Amore E Libertà Only Void Salamanca A Needed Desire For Me Old Friend […]

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