Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

2023

Album Reviews

Album Review: Fuming Mouth – Last Day Of Sun

FUMING MOUTH from Massachusetts was one of the “buzz bands” that played Milwaukee Metalfest earlier this year, but I was unable to catch them. Boy, are these guys an awkward mish-mash of styles. When they are on point, they are extremely crushing, but when they experiment, the results are often clunky if not down right cringeable. Can you imagine a band that mixes Swedish death metal in the classic Stockholm style with choruses you’d find on radio rock nu-metal? You get it with FUMING MOUTH. Let us descend into their maelstrom. Last Day Of Sun is huge and rather bloated, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Woe – Legacies Of Frailty

I felt a not a small trepidation when the PR info for WOE’s fifth mentioned “many layers of overdubs”, given founder/songwriter Chris Grigg’s propensity for scaled back and tightly wound blackness just this side of primitive, but when ‘Fresh Chaos Greets The Dawn’ rose slowly in the sable sky, only to be wound in multi-tracked guitars and rhythmic pulses, I wanted to be sold. I really, really wanted to be sold. There are moments when things sounding out of control and deranged is ideal, is not only welcomed, but vital. This just sounds slipshod and unbalanced, containing very little to […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Blazoner – Escape To Electric Land

My home state trio, BLAZONER arrive with their debut full length offering in the form of Escape To Electric Land but, to be honest, I’m a little concerned when any bio references the likes of BLACK SABBATH and adds “with a few electronic twists”. So, here goes. Well, no sense in not getting right down to the business of a fully electronic intro track that sounds as if it’d be more at home on an ‘80s Windham Hill Records sampler. I’m actually fine with this, however what I’m expecting is some absurd veering into heavier realms soon enough. I’m not […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Martyrdoom – As Torment Prevails

I often lament the utter lack of individuality and originality amongst modern death metal bands, but now and then an act arrives that is in such total mastery of the genre’s basics that such concerns are irrelevant. That brings us to Poland’s MARTYRDOOM and As Torment Prevails…these gross motherfuckers just plain plow you under the rancid Earth with this pulsating pustule of doom-tinged rottenness. Two things help elevate MARTYRDOOM; the quality of their riffs, which is outstanding, and the true feeling of morbid sickness, which is something that just can’t be faked. If you like greasy, oozing riffs drenched in […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Cirith Ungol – Dark Parade

Along with MANILLA ROAD, MANOWAR and BROCAS HELM, Ventura, California’s CIRITH UNGOL is one of the first bands that comes up (or should) in any discussion of American power/epic/heavy metal. With the passing of Mark Shelton of MANILLA ROAD any album released by the above becomes more important as not a teary-eyed trip through the “glory days”, but as confirmation of metal’s warrior spirit. After a triumphant return to record in 2020’s Forever Black, we join Dark Parade, the band’s sixth studio album. ‘Velocity (S.E.P.)’ bursts from shattered gates, a twin guitar attack and vocalist Tim Baker’s “Stretch your soul […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Xorsist – At The Somber Steps To Serenity

XORSIST sends infernal hails from the land of Gothen…wait, no, Stockholm. These newcomers make no secret that the band is a blatant attempt to conjure the early HM-2, buzzsaw riffing and low-toned rumble for which their town is known, but can they? After 2022’s debut showing – which was alright, but when you’re talking Stockholm, “alright” just doesn’t cut it – founder and vocalist/guitarist Gustav Ryderfelt found himself some other folks to play with, hung onto the name, and here we have a second album already, At The Somber Steps To Serenity, on Prosthetic Records. Anyone who’s read my scratchings […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Summoning Death – A Traumatic Night Of The Creeps [EP]

SUMMONING DEATH are from the part of Stockholm that’s in Cancún, MX, and begins ‘Night Of The Creeps’ with an organ as cold as the cryogenics lab in the cult classic that gave the song its name, before the equally frigid madcap riffing kicks in, slicing and dicing, yet still rough around the edges. ‘Halloween’ is where the most trad Swedeath can be found, but there’s the stoic, icy stare of a killer here, the antithesis of the climate of the band’s locale. The quirkiness of MACABRE even gets a nod in the jaunty bridge because the hysteria resumes. There’s […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Prong – State Of Emergency

State Of Emergency is lucky #13 for New York’s stalwarts PRONG. Judging by the photos accompanying the release, it seems the “band” is pretty much just Tommy Victor at this point. Of course, Tommy is so multi-talented that he doesn’t need anybody else. Except maybe when it comes to the live show. The album will satisfy and delight anyone who has ever grooved or thrashed to PRONG’s mechanistic style of heavy metal. And if you hated and ignored PRONG before, this won’t change your mind. Will it draw new ears to Tommy’s pride and joy? Maybe, if you give it […]

Short Sharp Shocks

UFOMAMMUT – Crookhead [EP]

A short six months after psych-ish/doom-ish transcendental cadre UFOMAMMUT reached (or returned to) new heights with Fenice, we’re presented with a short EP by the name of Crookhead. The title opening track is the gluttonous rumble deep from the empty belly of a waking, carnivorous Jötunn, feet tromping lakes where once were flatlands, belch-bellowing his rapacity over a ‘70s CB radio for its nearly 9 minutes. Swaying heavily at times, others over a bed of YOB-worthy intonations, ‘Supernova’ takes us to the throbbing heart of Crookhead, while ‘Vibrhate’ lives up to its name. I referred to Fenice as “a rebirth” […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Dave Neabore – Power Plan [EP]

Well, this one sure to shit wasn’t expected. The only thing I care to know about DOG EAT DOG is that RONNIE JAMES DIO did a song with them. Founding bassist Dave Neabore reveals his Power Plan on this EP, and it’s awash in synths from the get-go. No pity-party FLOCK OF SEAGULLS here, ‘Power Plan’ is Danny Elfman popping MDMA and turned loose in Rick Wakeman’s playroom. More cerebral, an almost ART OF NOISE minimalist vibe carries ‘Star Feels’, while ‘Delayed Green’ throbs and pulsates. Closing down with ‘Night Shift’ unceremoniously dumping all the goth-lite ghouls into the neon […]

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