Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

2023

Album Reviews

Album Review: The Sigil – Argante [EP]

What a pleasant surprise this EP is! If you’re a fan of proto-metal/retro rock, this Swedish band is not to be missed. They could definitely be lumped in with the “occult rock” category, but I feel the songwriting and production is better than most of that ilk. The five tunes here are genuinely well crafted and should appeal to fans of diverse acts like JETHRO TULL, BLUE ÖYSTER CULT, OPETH, ALAN PARSONS PROJECT and URIAH HEEP. The sound is organic hard rock from the heart of the ’70s. ‘The Shape of Shadows’ starts things off with a driving, guitar-oriented tune. […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Vulture Industries – Ghosts From The Past

Norway’s VULTURE INDUSTRIES has been a case of quality over quantity from its inception, so we’ll forgive them if it takes a year, or three, or four between albums. Swimming just beneath the surface, it seems, in the ocean that is prog-infused metal without going full-bore into unabashed wankery, the five-piece has never gotten its due, at least from where this fellow sits. And now, six (count ‘em!) years after the stellar Stranger Times, the band return with Ghosts From The Past. ‘New Lords Of Light’ shines, elements of SENTENCED, GREEN CARNATION and, yes, LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE, a heady blend of […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Oxblood Forge – Cult Of Oblivion [EP]

The blend of stoner and doom is hard to get right, even more so when bands task themselves with (or come by it naturally, which is best) tossing some traditional heavy metal into the cauldron to kick the concoction up a few notches. Boston’s OXBLOOD FORGE is one of those, and Cult Of Oblivion follows its first full-length showing, Decimator of 2021. Instantly I’m not fond of Ken MacKay’s vocal approach, but I’m equally unsure if it’s due to my setting expectations prior to listening, or if his shout/bellow/screech delivery would be truly better suited to a more aggressive style. […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Liquid Flesh – Dolores

Talk about a dark horse coming out of nowhere…that’s just what we have with this band from Grenoble, France (hometown of Andre The Giant, by the way). This is thinking man’s death metal of the first order, superbly played and recorded and, most importantly of all, something new that hasn’t been done to death like 90% of the death metal being released these days. This thing is loud! The opening chords of ‘Urbex Macabre’ hit like hammer blows, huge and vast in impact. The whole album comes across with the same force and clarity. It’s hard to nail down exactly […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Dead Heat – Endless Torment [EP]

Ahh, crossover. That glorious, sweat ‘n’ stale beer-drenched alliance unexpectedly created by streetwise hardcore kids who became better musicians and suburbanite headbangers who wanted to add a bit more groove to the rapid-fire riff onslaught of thrash. And when your first album ends with a CRUMBSUCKERS cover, it’s clear you know your history. So let’s see what ya got, DEAD HEAT. ‘Endless Torment’ begins with a keyboard intro that lasts about 40 seconds and is, therefore, 40 seconds too long, but rest assured that once this Oxnard, California four-piece gets going all is forgiven. A more outright thrash attack during […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Blodulv – I, II, III – Burial

The early ‘00s were a time of sonic upheaval in black metal. Tectonic plates were shifting, stars were realigning into some configuration never dreamt of by black metal’s originators, and likely never intended by the 2nd Wave of the early ‘90s. EMPEROR silenced its existence for a time with the uber-progressive – and final – studio album, Prometheus: The Discipline Of Fire & Demise, France’s BLUT AUS NORD would drop The Work Which Transforms God in ’03, and ENSLAVED released the still-divisive Below The Lights. Into this shift strode BLODULV. With albums simply titled I, II and III – Burial, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Cloak – Black Flame Eternal

Having seen the Atlanta quartet open for IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT in what amounts to a shoebox with a bar inside earlier this year, I can vouch that CLOAK’s “is it black/death or death/black” hybridization does carry over well into a live setting. To be honest, I’ve never “gotten” the WATAIN comparisons, as, musically, CLOAK has more clarity while managing to haunt – and thus far thrive in – the shades beyond dark and light, good and evil when it comes to lyrical fare. Striking hard and early the anvil of the search for enlightenment, ‘Ethereal Fire’ ignites, the band sounding full-bodied […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Frozen Soul – Glacial Domination

Texas’ FROZEN SOUL is one of the new generation of death metal bands stepping up to the plate and trying to take the torch from the giants of old. That is a super difficult task, because almost all of these bands just sound like an echo of what has gone before. In FROZEN SOUL’s case, they obviously are BOLT THROWER’s junior division and I imagine vocalist Chad Green spends a lot of time in front of a mirror polishing his best Karl Willets tones. Out of all the new “primitive” death metal bands getting big publicity…the group includes SANGUISUGABOGG, 200 […]

Music News

Album Review: Chrome Waves – Earth Will Shed Its Skin

Let’s just get this out of the way to start with. The term “post-” anything has begun to rub me very much the wrong way when it comes to genre identifiers. Yes, yes, I understand, due to the seemingly endless sub-sub-subgenres comingling in some bland incestuous orgy of redundancy, you “need” defining terms to guide you toward artists/bands that might be of interest. I get that. My true contention is that the prefix “post-” has been deep in glut for years now, much the same as the progressive scene experienced in the ‘70s. Chicago’s CHROME WAVES have been at it […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Waxen – Die Macht Von Hassen

Toby Knapp, within black/thrash and, for a time power metal, rivals Rogga Johansson and Chris Riefert in sheer output and projects, side and otherwise. We’ve all heard the whole “signed with Shrapnel at 19” story, which is admirable, indeed. It’s 2023, though, so we’re only judging Mr. Knap related to WAXEN, and thus… Robust from the start, ‘Die Macht Von Hassen’ sets the stage, all instruments mixed so as to give a sturdy sonic foundation to the blackened firestorm set to light before us. A semi-martial cadence on the drums soon slows to a near-doom crawl, yet loses none of […]

Older Posts