Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

2024

Album Reviews

Album Review: Wolfbrigade – Life Knife Death

Who needs coffee and energy drinks when WOLFBRIGADE is around? Hell, who needs cocaine?! This long running Swedish band is bone-breaking speed and power in concentrated music form. I was kinda shocked when I found out their new album would be on Metal Blade. I’m glad they’re on one of the bigger metal labels, but for a band with deep roots in the crusty Swedish punk scene, it’s a strange fit. Strange or no, they haven’t toned down one iota for this record. The press compares them to DISCHARGE, MOTÖRHEAD and old ENTOMBED, and that really hits the nail smack […]

Music News

Album Review: Glacial Tomb – Lightless Expanse

From the fertile musical soil of Denver, Colorado, GLACIAL TOMB returns with its second full length. Annoying keys and overblown effects lead us into the ‘Stygian Abattoir’, and oh, man, are these guys trying to sound like early Gothenburg here, at least in the music. The vocals haven’t changed much since the self-titled 2018 debut, nondescript as ever. I’m sure some may thrive on the frequent shifts from second-tier death metal growl to blackish bark, but to me, there’s nothing appealing. The trio seems to feel they’re a blend of sludge, black and death metals, but the tired-ass bridge in […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Hatchend – Summer Of ’69

In the world of death/grind, Polish label Selfmadegod Records has long been a bastion of quality output. Bands as far-ranging as AGATHOCLES and ENCOFFINATION call it home, the former firing off multiple split releases per year, the true scatterguns of grind, the latter patient-yet-passionate doom/death. Racing headlong into this fray comes HATCHEND. ‘Shackled Humanity’ pierces right out the gate, feral and uncompromising in its love of speed, speed and speed. What’s truly impressive even from the start is the strength of the riffs themselves, lashing out from the blistering blast, discernable and diabolical at once. With no time for such […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Pharmakon – Maggot Mass

After four albums on Sacred Bones Records (also home to releases by artists as disparate as the world-splitting KHANATE, the goth-proto-punk of LATHE OF HEAVEN and ZOLA JESUS’ electro-pop) cometh the Maggot Mass… Worry not, longtime fans of PHARMAKON, when we tell you that she’s experimenting with songs structured in a more “traditional” way. First, you must consider what one who has her past output would consider traditional, then you must put even that aside for this journey. ‘Wither And Warp’ ushers in the consecration, ceremonial in rhythm and intonation, a calling forth? Or to? Skitter-scritchings of insects, chattering, a […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Atom Driver – Occupants [EP]

By my count Occupants is ATOM DRIVER’s sixth EP, despite the band being around since 2016 with nary a full-length to show for it. Doesn’t matter, though, as the title track immediately jettisons me back to the days of snagging 7” from record stores by bands that fired off a couple-few songs at a time, little sonic pioneers, out into the frontier of independent shops, squats and bookstores. Shades of SNAPCASE’s more accessible work, JAWBREAKER’s Bivouac shove us headlong into ‘Say Anything You Want’, the snarling guitar recalling the abrasion of CAVE IN, but again, filtered through the lens of […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Hammerfall – Avenge The Fallen

Never let it be said that I’m not nostalgic. HAMMERFALL had the good (or bad) fortune to come along at a time when metal of all sorts was deep in the throes of an identity crisis, from which it took years to emerge. Still, MANOWAR was on a major label, and BLIND GUARDIAN, STRATOVARIUS and ICED EARTH were holding the banner high, our great and shining hopes for the future. By 1999, however, HAMMERFALL – at least to my ears – sang their creative swan song with the original material on the I Want Out EP. Renegade would follow with […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Yosemite In Black – In Pursuit Of

Based on the scant amount of actual info on Georgia’s YOSEMITE IN BLACK available without either logging into Facebook or following them on Bandcamp, neither of which I’m prepared to do not having heard a note until this moment. It seems like the band probably got its start around the turn of the decade and – again, from what I’ve found – In Pursuit Of is its first album. So, let’s go… The first thing that jumps out in opener ‘Cerberus’ is the mix and production – and when I say “jumps out”, I mean leaps the fuck forward as […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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