Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

cruz del sur

Interviews

Interview: Dark Forest

True metal quartet, DARK FOREST, recently released Oak, Ash & Thorn, an album as imbued with the band’s native British perspective as with the history of the land of their birth. Lord Randall recently sat down with founding songwriter/guitarist Christian Horton to discuss… TO EMBRACE DESTINYInterview with Christian Horton of DARK FORESTInterview By: Lord Randall Rebel Extravaganza: Back at the start (or your start with the band), did you have a vision of what you wanted DARK FOREST to become over time, and how does what it is today look back on what it was? Christian Horton: In the very […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Death The Leveller – II

When a band’s first long-player is titled II, two things become starkly clear. One, something has come before – in this case, 2017’s creatively-titled I. And two, that what’s found on DEATH THE LEVELLER’s Cruz Del Sur debut is to be seen as a continuation. And thus, so armed, to Bandcamp I did go, armed with 4 EUR ($4.34 for USsians), and was summarily impressed by the emotion found within I’s four expansive tracks, ‘Gone Forever’ especially showing a band with promise and clearly with its eyes to the future, albeit bleak. Now comes II, and the wailing guitar stunt-doubling […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Smoulder – Dream Quest Ends

The Good Doctor must have been under a sleeping enchantment when SMOULDER’s debut Times Of Obscene Evil And Wild Daring hit the racks last year. How I could have missed an album with Michael Whelan art on the cover can only be explained by sorcery. Now comes the Canadian band’s EP, entitled Dream Quest Ends, which gives me a second chance. Epic sword and sorcery metal with a very doom-laden aura and ringing female vocals is the most succinct way to describe Dream Quest Ends. Imagine MANILLA ROAD played at CANDLEMASS velocity and you’ve hit on the SMOULDER template. And […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Orodruin – Ruins Of Eternity

While I’m not opposed to clean vocals, Mike Puleo’s delivery just simply doesn’t do it for me. The vocals – his voice – is in no way bad, but not my cup of mead, so to speak. Instrumentally ORODRUIN is definitely talented. The melodies are pleasant, and the riffs aren’t bad, but again not something I can get into 100%. If you’re into neo-traditional doom metal you will like this album, with its super-clean vocals, heavy (but not overbearing) riffs, and soloing. That sentence right there, I feel, sums up ORODRUIN pretty well, being someone who hasn’t heard them up […]

Music News

New Doom from The Mighty ORODRUIN: ‘Man Of Peace’

Rochester (NY) – U.S. Doom Metal stalwarts ORODRUIN have released the second single from forthcoming album Ruins Of Eternity. Stream ‘Man Of Peace’ HERE The wait is finally over! American doom legends ORODRUIN return with their first studio album in 16 years, the masterful Ruins Of Eternity. The album’s first single, ‘Forsaken’, is streaming at this location. Ruins Of Eternity will be released October 25 on Cruz Del Sur Music. Pre-order Ruins Of Eternity:Bandcamp Vinyl LP CD One of the most highly-regarded names in American doom metal picks up where they left off from their classic Epicurean Mass debut with […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: The Lord Weird Slough Feg – New Organon

What band has the balls to name their album after a book on scientific method written by Francis Bacon in 1620? Who else but THE LORD WEIRD SLOUGH FEG (also known as SLOUGH FEG, but now favoring the longer name again)? It’s a pleasure to see these eccentric masters of philosophical and literary metal in my inbox again! If you love metal in the classic style but with plenty of quirk, I can’t recommend these guys highly enough. And I’m happy to say that New Organon is their best work in quite a while. The recording is rougher, heavier and […]