Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

BLOOD AND SUN present new single from upcoming EP collection, Ochre

Today we present ‘Ochre’, the first single from BLOOD AND SUN’s upcoming Ochre (& the collected EPs), a new EP complete with bonus tracks. Available on CD, vinyl, and digital format as of March 31, 2023. Listen to ‘Ochre’ Luke commented:“Ochre marks the fatted ram and he bows to take his place.” Piano and strings dominate this cinematic arrangement as mandolins creep through the hedges. The finishing touches of James Moy’s synthesisers play off the basslines, bringing to mind Angelo Badalamenti. Ritual sacrifice, wooded groves, and tobacco fields on childhood road trips all seep up. An unlikely horn-crowned Moses drenched […]

Album Review: Temptress – See

Christian Wright’s bass, languid and flowing, puts us out to the seas of See (see what I did there?), a healthy bit of AIC grunge in the mood TEMPTRESS is in search of as Kelsey Wilson’s guitars wash atop the surface, breaking the foam. I can’t help but feel like I’m still waiting on the song to start at the halfway mark, though. The harmonized vocals of Wilson/Wright are holding interest, and Andi Cuba’s rhythms are locked in ala Ringo Starr, providing a bedrock base for what’s going on around her. I’m just not sure what is going on, is […]

HPS Fest California tickets, timetables available

Day splits and timetables are now available for HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST CALIFORNIA, the stoner and doom festival taking place simultaneously in San Francisco and Joshua Tree over the weekend of March 25-26th. Founded and curated by European music label Heavy Psych Sounds Records, HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST has become a trademark event among heavy and fuzz rock lovers by taking over major European cities from London to Rome, Bruxelles and Paris since its inception in 2015. Embracing the success of the 2019 and 2022 editions, Heavy Psych Sounds Fest returns to California with its biggest lineup to date. Combining […]

Album Review: Cadaver Shrine – Benighted Desecration

When it comes to metal musicians who are insanely busy, two names come to mind. One is Swedish master death metal guitarist Rogga Johansson, aka “Rogga Of The Thousand Bands”. The other is Dutchman Maurice De Jong. the sole mind behind CADAVER SHRINE, who also is in a bewildering number of musical projects, some of them only faintly metal. The gruesome noise project GNAW THEIR TONGUES is likely his most well-known effort. CADAVER SHRINE is another one, the latest (I think?). This one is dedicated to brutish old school death metal in the fashion of old BOLT THROWER, ASPHYX, AUTOPSY […]

MAJESTIES: ‘Our Gracious Captors’ From Melodic Death Metal Act Formed By Obsequiae And Inexorum Members Now Streaming; Debut LP, Vast Reaches Unclaimed, Nears March Release On 20 Buck Spin

Melodic US death metal trio MAJESTIES issues ‘Our Gracious Captors’, the third single from the band’s debut LP, Vast Reaches Unclaimed, nearing March release through 20 Buck Spin. MAJESTIES unites guitarist/vocalist/drummer Tanner Anderson, guitarist Carl Skildum, and bassist Matthew Kirkwold. The sound on Vast Reaches Unclaimed will be another striking addition to their respective oeuvres, recalling the glorious days of Wrong Again and No Fashion Records. Evoking a time when Gothenburg was starting to unseat Stockholm as the unimpeachable city for Swedish death metal in the mind of the international metal scene, MAJESTIES bears that intrinsic sense of rabid intensity […]

Album Review: Bodyfarm – Ultimate Abomination

Returning with its fifth full-length in just over a decade, Netherlands death machine BODYFARM brings hopes to bring us Ultimate Abomination. ‘Torment’ begins the assault, the scattershot sound of European death (early WOMBBATH a reference point), but mixed with the grime of OBITUARY’s pre-The End Complete years making no secret of the band’s influences. There’s a freshness to it, though, ‘Symbolical Warfare’ a head-down, forward-charging rager ala SLAYER before they lost their balls, new drummer David Schermann keeping the tank rolling forward and furiously. You don’t just walk into a band like BODYFARM with no preparation, and – as a […]

Norwegian stonercore champions HÅNDGEMENG release catchy new single ‘Cro-Magnon vs Neanderthal’; debut album coming March 10th on Ripple Music

HÅNDGEMENG [håndgemeng: noun; rough-and-tumble, scuffle, free fight] Go headfirst in the glorious riff-heavy of Norwegian self-proclaimed “stonercore” foursome HÅNDGEMENG! A high-octane, unstoppable weapon of sonic destruction, their debut album Ultraritual intrepidly draws from the fuzz-laden wizardry of stoner rock, the melodic richness of classic rock, all topped off by the band’s hardcore roots. Listen to new banger ‘Cro-Magnon vs Neanderthal’ Somewhere in the tundra, the cosmic offspring of Kvelertak and Mantar was born and decided to crank it loud while getting tenfold trippier. With seven bangers propelled by Martin Wennberg’s galvanizing roars, HÅNDGEMENG takes you from the depths of hell […]

Album Review: Dreams Of Gray – The World After [EP]

Black metal has, even since the days of BATHORY and BURZUM, been the enclave of the solitary, and there’s a better than likely chance that, in 2023, the solo practitioners of the art far outnumber more traditional bands. Not so, the realm of doom. Or, in the case of Illinois’ DREAMS OF GRAY, a death/doom hybrid. Austria’s SELENITE comes to mind, the funereal liturgy of Italy’s NOCTU, but the genre as a whole lends itself to collaboration, strangely; a camaraderie of the sorrowful, if you will. Misery does love company, after all. More active in ABOLISHER of the mid-‘90s to […]

TEMPTRESS To Support DESTROYER OF LIGHT On Seeing Through The Panic 2023 Tour

Texas’ heavy trio known as TEMPTRESS is preparing to embark on the spring US tour supporting the melodic doom metal outfit Destroyer Of Light. Running throughout March and April 2023, the Seeing Through The Panic tour will unleash an onslaught of gloomy atmospheres and immersive performances. “We’ve been around this part of the country once before and are ready to reunite with some old friends, and make some new friends along the way!” “Stoked to be sharing the stage with our friends and brothers in DESTROYER OF LIGHT, we’ll both be promoting our new albums, its gonna be a lot […]

Album Review: SANGUISUGABOGG – Homicidal Ecstasy

After the four song Pornographic Stench demo of 2019, SANGUISUGABOGG got snapped up double-quick by Century Media, parlaying the “weirdness” of their name and logo (self-described as “the Nike swoosh of death metal” by gurgler Devin Swank) into what seems to be the next “it” band in metal. ‘Black Market Vasectomy’ kicks things off, or tries to, at least. I shouldn’t enjoy Cody Davidson’s coffee can drums, but for some reason I am, but that could be because they’re mixed so far to the front that the guitars sound like they’re in a room down the hall somewhere, likely jerking […]