Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Album Reviews

Album Review: Orange Goblin – Science, Not Fiction

On its tenth album, ORANGE GOBLIN remains the same as they’ve always been; fun and entertaining to listen to in the short run, but lacking the extra ingredient necessary to get them over the hump into the next level. Bands and albums like this are always the hardest to review, as they are not bad by any stretch, but just not really memorable. The GOBLIN sound remains true to itself here, a greasy kind of riff rock like MOTÖRHEAD meets MONSTER MAGNET. I will say this – they really make the attempt to give every song its own personality here. […]

Music News

LIZZARD: Prog-Rock Power Trio Releases Introspective New Single, ‘Elevate’; Mesh Full-Length To See Release September 27th On Pelagic Records

France-based, prog-rock power trio LIZZARD has released ‘Elevate’ the latest single from their forthcoming fifth studio album, Mesh, set for release on September 27th via Berlin’s Pelagic Records. Capturing the energetic, lightning-in-a-bottle optimism of the late ‘90s post-punk/art-rock scene and reigniting it with simmering potential, Mesh sees LIZZARD out to reclaim the creative, collaborative energy that has fueled them for over a decade. Having first met in 2006, drummer Katy Elwell, guitarist/vocalist Mat Ricou, and bassist Will Knox quickly realized they shared not only similar creative influences but also a distinct musical vision. The trio set out to craft an […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: The Stabbing Jabs – The Stabbing Jabs

Ah, Cincinnati…Porkopolis herself, home of Skyline Chili, the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers. And now home to, for better or worse, THE STABBING JABS. ‘Broken Brain’ hits with the fury of BLACK FLAG’s ‘My War’ but done up in a grime-fueled rock and roll incarnation, and I’m not sure how many seconds the guitarist spent getting that tone, but it’s just drenched in motor oil, and continues through the even more punch-drunk ‘Bad Slime’. Memories of my time in Detroit at Corktown Taven come to mind, five local kickass bands for $10 in a 2nd floor shoebox just […]

Music News

LORD OF PLAGUE: Ukrainian Death Metal Duo Releases Passage To None EP On Carbonized Records

Ukrainian death metal duo LORD OF PLAGUE has released their debut EP, Passage To None, on Carbonized Records. LORD OF PLAGUE was initially forged in 2016 by guitarist/vocalist Vlad A and drummer Andrii Zagovora, two longtime comrades in metal united under their passion for OSDM. Named in honor of Morbid Angel’s classic ‘Lord Of All Fevers & Plague’ and influenced by the likes of Monstrosity, early Deicide, Cenotaph, and The Chasm, the two composed several tracks of sonic savagery before putting things on hold for a time. Fueled by an enduring appetite for heaviness and a penchant for the macabre, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Carnophage – Matters Of A Darker Nature

After 2 albums on respected Californian death metal imprint Unique Leader, CARNOPHAGE returns (yep, you guessed it, eight years later), this time on India’s multi-genre Transcending Obscurity, and with Matter Of A Darker Nature. Now, here’s the thing; I don’t really give a right rolling crap how “brutal” you are. If the songs aren’t there, I’m never going to give your shit more than one spin, unless you count the one down the toilet. Keeping the same lineup intact over the past two albums has served the Turkish entity well, as opener ‘In My Bones’ holds onto the face-forward energy […]

Music News

MAMMOTH CARAVAN Streams Video for ‘Tusks Of Orion’ – Cover Art & Tracklisting for Frostbitten Galaxy Revealed

Little Rock doom trio MAMMOTH CARAVAN has launched the official music video for ‘Tusks Of Orion’, the first single off the band’s new album, Frostbitten Galaxy. MAMMOTH CARAVAN bassist/vocalist comments on the song, “’Tusks Of Orion’ is meant, in the grand scheme of the album’s story, to serve as a war anthem from a bloodthirsty mammoth king hell-bent on conquering all life in the galaxy. Musically the song was inspired by bands like Dillinger Escape Plan, Zao, and Mastodon and we think that it perfectly encapsulates what we are going for with the new album in terms of intensity, and […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Endless Floods – Rites Futurs

There’s something I’ve always appreciated about music with vocals/lyrics in other languages than English. For the native speakers or those who’ve learned the language, it gives a sense of “ownership”, of kinship, if you would. For those of us who have anything from no idea to a passing grasp of what’s being sung about, it forces the music to stand on its own. The vocals, for non-speakers, then take on an incorporeal quality – a glossolalia, if you would. And that’s what I’m experiencing with ENDLESS FLOODS’ return trip, Rites Futurs. ‘L’Éclair’ cascades over the cliffs and into a hidden […]

Music News

HIGH REEPER: new single + album announced on HPS Records

US heavy metal quintet HIGH REEPER return strong with their third studio album, Renewed By Death, to be released on October 4th through Heavy Psych Sounds. Stream their fierce new single ‘Torn From Within’ exclusively on Distorted Sound Magazine. Three years after appearing on the Doom Sessions Vol. 5 split, HIGH REEPER are back with their most ambitious album yet. Renewed By Death is a true heavy metal assault: eight tracks that take you on a journey to the darkest depths and leave you there to rot, featuring monolithic riffs that pummel you from the opening of the album to […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Skelethal – Within Corrosive Continuums

Here’s the third album from one of France’s best death metal bands, SKELETHAL. Starting out as pretty much a tribute to classic Swedish death, they shifted their sound somewhat with their second go around, Unveiling The Threshold, adding more technicality and a bit of the Floridian DM vibe. Within Corrosive Continuums emerges in a time of an overstuffed death metal scene, so it needs to be a definitive statement. And it just might be. This time around, SKELETHAL remain resolutely morbid and brutal yet they show more different influences than ever before. This is an album that benefits from a […]

Music News

Black Metal Duo Hammerfilosofi Announce Solus… EP

International black metal duo HAMMERFILOSOFI will unleash a new EP this fall on Aeternitas Tenebrarum Musicae Fundamentum (ATMF). After their much-acclaimed debut album, The Desolate One, HAMMERFILOSOFI returns with a fiery assault on the senses, in the shape of an EP entitled Solus (Igne Natura Renovator Integra); four psalms of relentless, multi-layered, and hellish madness. “The EP is an inward journey of spiritual violence and cathartic soul-searching”, comments NKTFR, and adds: “Both musically and lyrically, it picks up from where The Desolate One left off and continues in a bold leap into the dark unknown”. Behind the music is as […]

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