Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Dr. Abner Mality

Album Reviews

Album Review: Withering Soul – Passage Of The Arcane

The best kept secret in Chicago metal is WITHERING SOUL. These guys should be mentioned in the same breath as CIANIDE, CARDIAC ARREST, USURPER and Chi-town’s other masters of the extreme. But instead there is silence. The band’s last album, Last Contact, was a Top Ten effort in 2021. And if anything, they’ve gotten even better with Passage Of The Arcane. They are masters of blackened death metal (or deathly black, take your pick),delivering true epics full of pounding aggression but also dense melodies and complex arrangements. They don’t really have that much in common with the other Chicago bands […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Kostnateni – Přiliŝnost

The older I get, the more I realize I’m just not weird enough. Just being a fan of metal…even extreme metal…is not enough. I’m on the hunt for the truly outlandish…the fringe dwellers and musical outliers that subvert norms and come up with something new. This year, HAVUKRUUNU and ARKHAAIK have satisfied that craving. But with KOSTNATENI, I’ve reached another level yet. KOSTNATENI is one Mr. DL and I’ve been a follower of his ever since I heard the monumental Oheň hoȓi tam, kde padl EP about four years ago. DL is a man not content to follow well-trodden paths. […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Warrant – The Speed Of Metal

No, this isn’t the California hair band that topped the charts in the late ’80s…this is the older, harder WARRANT out of Germany, who released some speed/thrash albums in the early ’80s. Like almost any metal band that has ever put out a record, they’ve reformed after decades out of commission and are back in action with The Speed Of Metal. The thing that struck me about this version of WARRANT is that they don’t seem to exclusively be a speed-oriented band. Early tracks like ‘Cut Into Pieces’ and ‘Demons’ really cut loose with a blitzkrieg of thrash metal, but […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Syrinx – Time Out Of Place

I wonder if the hallowed halls of SYRINX’s practice space are lined with Great Computers… Yes, we got ourselves some 24 karat 70’s RUSH fans here…and how! One look at their promo picture, complete with frilly white shirts, will convince you they stepped out of a wormhole connected to 1978. That’s cool with me, I’m a huge fan of ’70s RUSH, but you are setting yourself a VERY high bar when you call your band SYRINX. This is a true artifact. Time Out Of Place is a true prog rock album…there’s plenty of loud guitar, but almost no actual metal. […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Arkhaaik – Uihtis

The human race right now is the weakest it has ever been. Internet, A.I., television, billions of types of legal drugs and all the other “comforts” of modern life have made us into something completely different than our ancestors of just a few hundred years would recognize. Is there any room at all any more for the primal and raw instincts we once possessed in abundance? ARKHAAIK from Switzerland says yes. They have found a way to tap into the dawn times of humanity with the power of heavy metal. Uihtis has done it. When I listened to this album, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Degrave – Metalithic

Not a heck of a lot of metal coming out of Missouri these days, but DEGRAVE is a very potent exception. I like these guys a lot! There’s a real grittiness and rawness to what they dish up on Metalithic that sounds pretty refreshing. When the final feedback of ‘Death Is…’ came to an end, I immediately wanted to start over with ‘Usurper Of Flame’ once more. That doesn’t happen too often in Mality’s world these days! What’s really cool about DEGRAVE is that they don’t really resemble any other band…also a rare thing. Sure, the press compares them to […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Black Magnet – Megamantra

Industrial metal that sounds like a swarm of killer androids fashioned from junkyard materials, that’s what you get from BLACK MAGNET. Industrial music has always appealed to me, if done right. That means if done with the proper aggression and atmosphere and not sounding like evil disco music. No worries here…BLACK MAGNET has a suitably abrasive and heavy approach. You can hear influences from all the standard industrial acts here, like MINISTRY, NINE INCH NAILS, FEAR FACTORY, SKINNY PUPPY. Those influences are blended in such a way that BLACK MAGNET has its own sound. Even in the almost “danceable” moments, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Vindicator – Whispers Of Death

It’s an all out thrash attack from this long-running Ohio band, and they really know what they’re doing. You don’t have to get too deep into Whispers Of Death to realize this is a veteran band that focuses on the essence of thrash. There’s no attempt to update the sound, smooth things out or add some grand concept to what they’re doing…they’re in it to whoop ass and that’s about it. You might not be able to sit down for a week after the ass-whooping delivered here. When VINDICATOR is operating at its peak, they rival EXODUS as far as […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Blind Equation – A Funeral In Purgatory

This was one of the most painful listening experiences I’ve had in a while. I really debated whether I should review this at all, as musically this is my version of Kryptonite. I don’t really enjoy doing super negative reviews. But BLIND EQUATION described themselves as “cybergrind”. With that bit of blatant mislabeling, all bets are off. There’s about as much grind in this as a TAYLOR SWIFT album. Which is to say, none. You want grind? Put in the latest from CAUSTIC WOUND…a tenth of a second of that would annihilate this. I can’t believe this is a Chicago […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: King Parrot – A Young Person’s Guide To King Parrot

The PARROT squawks again! I thought this bird had almost ceased to exist (there’s a comedy sketch in here somewhere!) but it’s just too mean to die! Not only that, but A Young Person’s Guide To King Parrot shows that they are angrier, louder and more vitriolic than ever. If there was ever such a thing as a bird that could get rabies, KING PARROT would be that bird! The band has always been manic and violent, but this new one pushes them further than ever. I would still call them grindcore, but there’s no band that sounds quite like […]

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