Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

cruz del sur music

Video for Title Track from ERIC WAGNER Solo Album Premiering on Keep It True Festival TV Special

The video for ‘In The Lonely Light Of Mourning’, the title track from former TROUBLE singer Eric Wagner’s posthumous solo album, is receiving its exclusive preview via the Keep It True Festival 2-day TV special onFebruary 6. The song features a guest solo from PLACE OF SKULLS/ex-PENTAGRAM guitarist Victor Griffin. “The title track is lyrically foreboding musically, vocally raw and emotional,” says Dave Snyder, who co-wrote the entire album with Wagner. “It’s intentionally spacious. We talked about the ‘less is more approach,’ leaving space to breathe. When we were putting this one together, Eric said once the chorus kicks in, […]

Album Review: Apostle Of Solitude – Until The Darkness Goes

Indiana’s APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE, on the outside, ticks all the boxes for what should make a great doom band. Decent cover art (if we forget the abysmal Last Sunrise of 2010 – which I can’t), they’ve been at it for well over ten years, so the lineup should be locked and loaded, and and and the band contains two members of the much-revered THE GATES OF SLUMBER… So, why doesn’t it work? The guitar tone grates from the start, and not in a good way. As a doom worshiper since the mid-late ‘80s, in all its forms, I can take […]

CRUZ DEL SUR MUSIC Releasing ERIC WAGNER’s Posthumous Solo Album, In The Lonely Light Of Mourning

Cruz Del Sur Music will release legendary former TROUBLE singer Eric Wagner’s posthumous solo album, In The Lonely Light Of Mourning in March 2022. Recorded at Alpha Sound Services and Aardvark Recording, In The Lonely Light Of Mourning was completed and delivered to Cruz Del Sur Music a month before Eric’s untimely passing. Initially scheduled for a November 2021 release, Cruz Del Sur Music — in cooperation with Eric’s manager, Michael Smith — agreed to move the release date to March 2022 to give it the attention it deserves. “It has been a great honor to have the chance to […]

Album Review: Pharaoh – The Powers That Be

“Bring me their heads! Set loose the war dogs! Blood will flow by the powers that be. . .”We’re not even two minutes into the title track of The Powers That Be, and already we are beckoned forth with an epic battle cry. If you can’t feel the call, I suggest you crank up your volume. If that weren’t enough to stir you, very well, go live in your mediocrity. Heads will remain on shoulders; the dogs will mope around in their kennels, and the only thing flowing will be your inner barbarian’s tears as you sit back down to […]

Cruz Del Sur Music Announces The Return Of ONWARD

Cruz Del Sur Music is proud to announce the signing of cult U.S. power metallers ONWARD! The label will release their studio album Of Epoch And Inferno sometime in 2022. Formed in 2000 by guitar hero Toby Knapp, ONWARD broke onto the international metal stage with 2001’s Evermoving and 2002’s Reawaken, both of which were released via Century Media Records. The albums showcased Knapp’s superlative guitar skills that blended neoclassical and melodic sensibility, as well as original vocalist Michael Grant’s smooth delivery. Grant sadly passed away in 2012, leaving Knapp to issue his final recordings on 2014’s New Fathoms Dawn. […]

American Metal Legends ATTACKER Join Cruz Del Sur Music, Vocalist BOBBY LUCAS Returns To The Fold

Cruz Del Sur Music is proud to announce the signing of American metal legends ATTACKER! The label will release the band’s next studio album sometime in 2022. Originally formed in 1983, ATTACKER burst onto the scene with their 1985 debut, Battle At Helm’s Deep, an LP many consider to be one of the first pure American power metal albums. The band released The Second Coming in 1988 before splitting the next year. ATTACKER returned in 2001 and has since released four additional studio albums and one EP, the latest being 2018’s Armor Of The Gods EP. ATTACKER made contact with […]

Cruz Del Sur Music Re-Releasing ORODRUIN’s ‘Epicurean Mass’ on Vinyl / Fundraiser for Solstice Guitarist Rich Walker

Rochester (NY) – Cruz Del Sur Music have announced the vinyl re-release of ORODRUIN’s classic doom album Epicurean Mass on May 28. The re-release is part of a multi-faceted fundraiser for stricken Solstice guitarist Rich Walker. ORODRUIN’s 2003 Epicurean Mass debut was a harbinger of things to come. So formidable that it took the band 16 years to release its Ruins of Eternity follow-up, Epicurean Mass paved the way for a resurgence in mournful, riff-laden Black Sabbath and Saint Vitus-styled doom. Doom was taken back to its earnest, dark roots, casting aside the occasional pomp and image-first angle that was […]

Album Review: Wheel – Preserved In Time

It’s pretty obvious that we will not be getting another album from SOLITUDE AETURNUS, and who knows when the next CANDLEMASS will show up? Well, lovers of epic doom metal at the highest level will no longer need to starve themselves, because the mighty WHEEL has rolled in from Germany. This is a flawless example of melodic, epic and sorrowful doom that is totally in the mode of the first classic albums from SOLITUDE AETURNUS. The sad feeling, the clear and piercing vocals, the massive crushing riffs are all here, and they are used in just the right proportion…a trick […]

Album Review: White Magician – Dealers Of Divinity

They say that no one has really been able to duplicate the sound of 70’s BLUE OYSTER CULT. Well, the claim has been made that GHOST has done it, but no honest music fan takes that seriously. I can say that Detroit’s WHITE MAGICIAN has probably made the best stab at emulating BOC that I can remember. That’s not to say they equal the CULT in full flow, because almost nobody can do that. But the BOC fingerprints are all over Dealers Of Divinity, and it makes for a pretty unique album. This really does have the authentic ’70s feel […]

UK True Metallers DARK FOREST Return in April with Oak, Ash & Thorn / New Single Streaming

Venerable British true metallers DARK FOREST return with nine songs of epic metal heroics and monumental storytelling on Oak, Ash & Thorn. The album will be released on CD, Vinyl, and Digital formats April 24 on Cruz Del Sur Music. New song ‘The Midnight Folk’ is streaming now HERE With their first studio offering in four years, DARK FOREST marries traditional metal glory with tales from the heart of England’s long and storied past. DARK FOREST founding member, guitarist and songwriter Christian Horton was halfway through the creation of the band’s fifth studio album when he came across a copy […]