Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

2025

Album Reviews

Album Review: Messa – The Spin

Italian doomweavers MESSA have always been reliable, but with the move to Svart Records and release of Close in 2022, they became memorable. A Live At Roadburn followed, and now arrives The Spin, marked by yet another label switch, this time under the Metal Blade imprint. I’ll confess to a bit of trepidation when I see three releases from a band in a row, all on different labels, but MESSA has been around for just over a decade, and this is its fourth LP, so the members have clearly put in the work, and may be simply seeking to be […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Turkey Vulture – Dead To Me [EP]

Ya just gotta give Connecticut’s TURKEY VULTURE props for doing it the right way – honing its sound over 4 EPs and a smattering of singles since 2019, not over-anxious to jump into the album format, when it may never suit them. ‘Jill The Ripper (Heavy Take)’ doesn’t come with the promised “doom’s crushing weight”, but the snarl in the vox of drummer Jim Clegg more than suffice, the tune rampant with dirty punk ‘n’ roll ala VANDALS and CIRCLE JERKS (VI era). The title track finds guitarist/bassist Jessie May joining on vocals and boasts a chorus as catchy as […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Gates To Hell – Death Comes To All

Of all the new bands trying to cash in on the brutal death/hardcore mash-up trend, this is the worst I’ve heard so far. I’m appalled a record of this low quality is on Nuclear Blast. I know they sign some bad bands to jump on bandwagons, but this is bad right down to the production quality and playing ability. It makes SANGUISUGABOGG and BONGINATOR look like ATHEIST. I like death metal and hardcore when they are primitive and to the point. This is DUMB, not primitive…an onslaught of uninteresting riffs, lobotomized breakdowns that have been done over and over for […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Rokets – Bad Choices

There’s just something about dirty Scandinavian rock ‘n’ roll. From forefathers HANOI ROCKS to BACKYARD BABIES to countless others, that Sunset Boulevard sound has been mangled and mutated by sheer force of will into something other – something independent of its heritage, created without the media hype engine so treasured and fickle here in the good ol’ US of A. Entering the ring now is ROKETS, with their third attempt at a knockout, Bad Choices. ‘Bad Choices’ gets down to bidness quick and (im)proper, and there’s something of CRANK COUNTY DAREDEVILS and LEGENDARY SHACK SHAKERS in the guitar tone and […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Royal Blunder – Only More Is Enough [EP]

You’ve got four songs and I’ve only got 120 words, ROYAL BLUNDER, so let’s cut to the chase. Where do you get off cranking out a syncopated rocker like ‘The Clock’ right from the start? I’m hearing DANIEL AMOS here, but sweetened with just enough sugar to make the whole thing go down oh, so smooth. And that title track, the fiery guitar lead-in, that’s just uncalled for! Give us a minute to catch up, fellas, our media-addled brains can’t take all these goodtime grooves and positivity at once! The psych/pop of ‘Sherlock Holmes’ bleeds XTC, and ‘Blink’ capping this […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: The Lord Weird Slough Feg – Traveller Supplement 1: The Ephemeral Glades [EP]

THE LORD WEIRD SLOUGH FEG is one of the few bands carrying high the flame of traditional heavy metal. There, I said it. Add in an equally gonzo dose of love for THIN LIZZY in the guitar tone, and everything from Greek and Celtic mythology to primate overthrow to classic sci-fi to a wee band of shoulda-made-it-bigger-but-never-dids called HORSLIPS, and we got ourselves a keeper! After releasing three wallopers leading up to and ushering in the new millennium, Cap’n Scalzi hunkered down for a bit, only to return with what some would say is their benchmark album, Traveller. Now, 22 […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Iggor Cavalera / Shane Embury – ‘Neon Gods’ / ‘Own Your Darkness’

Do you even remember 1990? Cold Spring Records does and, almost from birth, it became a place to go for industrial, ambient, and outsider electronica when the dancey-dance of MY LIFE WITH THE THRILL KILL KULT and its ilk just wasn’t gonna cut it for the pervading sense of grime and decay that swam in the undercurrent of Generation X. EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN and SKINNY PUPPY were there, and others, sure. But that the label has stayed true to its original path for over three decades makes it one of “those” labels, evermore a rarity; the kind where – even if […]

Short Sharp Shocks

ASASARA – 777 [EP]

Massachusetts duo ASASARA returns with its second EP. ‘Myself Made Perfect’ is fluid in execution, rhythms at a just-below-mid-paced tempo. Stellar soloing greets us soon enough, a SACRED REICH vibe in both riffery and Niko Galanis’ vocals. ‘The Jaws Of Life’ begins in much the same way, and ends in…yep, you guessed it. I’m sensing a pattern, and the gymbro hardcore gang shouts in both this and ‘Limitless Vision’ only add to my ears’ misery. A traditional Greek song ends 777, and, sadly, it couldn’t have happened soon enough. Obviously talented are Galanis and drummer Emidio Alexandre; the problem is […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Caustic Phlegm – Purulent Apocalypse

It’s no secret that I’m a lover of all that is icky, repulsive and sickening when it comes to metal. I regard most instances of “sick” death metal as a challenge. One thing I insist on, though: a song can be grisly but it still has to be a SONG. As long as I can detect an interesting structure, there’s no limit to how heavy I can go. And I know I’m not the only one to feel this way. CAUSTIC PHLEGM is a one-man wrecking crew helmed by a UK guy named Evan Vasilakos and he wants to create […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Negative 13 – Recover What You Can

‘The Desolate’ does the rare thing that intros actually do, which is set the listener up for what’s in store. In this case, a plodding rumble/riff join forces to tumble us headlong into the SIXTY WATT SHAMAN-ic swinging groove of ‘Casket Trail’ {Scott] Fisher retains the hardcore-tinged snarl that’s suited him well as far back as the NEGATIVE THEORY days, and the band has more than a bit of My War-era BLACK FLAG in its sense of the disjointed when it comes to putting a song together, then nearly wrecking the whole thing so as to make it seem it’s […]

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