Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

2023

Album Reviews

Album Review: Sever – At Midnight, By Torchlight

So, let’s look at SEVER’s July 2022 Sadistic Sorcery demo as the moment of conception. What this does, in effect, is makes the April release of At Midnight, By Torch Light its birth. Now, what hath founder and (yep, you guessed it) sole entity Ma-Kaxul birthed? ‘Abyssonaut’ instantaneously assaults, clanging and cataclysmic, synths, strings and skins attacking from all sides, but retaining a sense of cohesion, impressive in such a storm. While the drums act more as a placeholder than anything else, I’d have liked to see a more dynamic role in this opener, but we’ve still 5 songs remaining, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Mystic Prophecy – Hellriot

Hellriot is the 12th studio album from this German metal institution and I’m hoping this will be the one to get them the attention they deserve. I’m not holding my breath, though, and that’s a shame because when it comes to classic PRIEST/DIO inspired metal with a kick, MYSTIC PROPHECY is hard to beat. This is the kind of record that you’re glad when the band tries nothing new. They don’t really need to. They’ve staked out this territory and dominate it…to me, they should be on the same level as PRIMAL FEAR. Their singer R.D. Liapakis has always been […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Mork – Dypet

MORK is Thomas Eriksen. And if black metal is even in the periphery of your musical world, you are familiar with the name. For nearly two decades Eriksen has been a force of might and misanthropy, even more impressive that he’s churned out now six full-lengths as well as four EPs by his loathsome lonesome all within the past ten years. What sounds like your little brother’s dungeon synth project practicing in his bedroom soon enough is joined by mournful guitars, very near to doom in delivery, and suddenly the synth belongs there, seeming natural and fluid. Set alight and […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Treedeon – New World Hoarder

TREEDEON returns with its all-important third album, the intriguingly titled New World Hoarder. After a five-year absence. Well, I suppose “absence” really isn’t the right word, and with such a bleakly foreboding album as Under the Machineel to follow, the time it took was the time it took, and at least some of those days were dedicated to making thoughtful steps forward. And our first step into the result, ‘Nutcréme Superspreader’, begins with the sound of ocean birds, the tide against the shore, quickly enough joined by fuzzed out, fluid bass/guitar patterns, mangled then cauterized vocal chords over the top, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Kommand – Death Age

‘Final Virus’ begins, grinding and grisly, that punishing, brutal lurch forward of conflict that all humans have endured since Cain walloped his brother, Abel, with a rock. All the marks are ticked when it comes to influences, and we’ll shoot out a few of them here – BOLT THROWER, HERESIARCH, albeit not as unhinged overall, MALEVOLENT CREATION – but this isn’t some slinging against the wall in hopes a shred of legitimacy sticks. The stringed soldiers keep their tone so blasted low for the most part it’s hard to tell which is which outside of the solos, but it fits […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Downfall Of Gaia – Silhouettes Of Disgust

Even though Germany’s DOWNFALL OF GAIA have been around for 15 years, this record is my first actual encounter with them. I could have dived into their previous output as research for this here review, but I thought I would go into this from zero. Everything about the band is new to me and I feel my missive should reflect that. This is a hodgepodge of sounds ranging from very fast and aggressive “semi-black” metal to drifting post metal drones to screaming modern hardcore a la CONVERGENCE. It’s all whipped together and sometimes winds up sounding pretty choppy. For example, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Oak – Disintegrate

Proving itself not only competent but comfortable in crafting longer songs with its debut, Lone, Portugal’s OAK returns with a single-track album, Disintegrate. CATHEDRAL wisely sidestepped the opportunity to do so when the disco doomlords “could’ve”, SLEEP blows minds and bong rips to this day courtesy of Dopesmoker (or Jerusalem, if you prefer), so it only remains to be heard if OAK “should’ve”. The opening track (also the closing track) begins with the feel of a soundtrack to a nature documentary or possibly of a community living destitute, separated by class, by creed, or by its own decision. Nothing is […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Austin Walkin’ Cane – Muscle Shoals

In the interest of forthrightness, yours truly spent some of the crappiest years of his life in the Shoals area of Alabama. A metal/punk kid coming up in the mid-‘80s had little chance of finding anything like a “group” of friends, hated my school, blah blah, the whole nine yards. So I dove headlong into books…and music. Thanks to an older skater my interest in truly different music was kindled and set to blaze, and a couple dudes who worked at the local record store became my rabbis, guiding me through a veritable Library Of Alexandria of music. All that […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Gatekeeper – From Western Shores

GATEKEEPER returns after five years between albums, hopefully bolstered by new blood, with From Western Shores. Sure, debut East Of Sun (itself released nearly 5 years after the band’s initial 2013 demo) was solid “enough”, but if a power/epic metal band isn’t truly epic – if I don’t end up leaping about the Citadel fending off hordes, carousing with fairy maidens and raising my battle axe high whilst standing victorious atop a pile of my enemy’s vanquished – then I tend not to revisit the album too often if at all, and it lies forgotten. To be honest, I’m a […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Xysma – No Place Like Alone

XYSMA was right there at the beginning of the Finnish death metal movement and back then they were as icky and revolting as any of them. That phase didn’t last too long; along with CONVULSE, they radically altered their sound and injected more straight rock and roll as well as other influences into their sound. But even that was 25 years ago… Of course, no band stays retired in this day and age and after a quarter of a century, XYSMA have returned. Anyone pining for their gruesome death metal days can continue pining…there’s none of that here. However, if […]

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