Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Dr. Abner Mality

Album Review: Furze – Caw Entrance

The one and only Woe J. Reaper, the Mad Hatter of Black Metal, returns with an all-new mad tea party to mess up our perception of reality. Every form of music needs a jester, a raconteur, to shake things up. Mr. Reaper, operating under the name of FURZE, has been doing that since the late ’90s, creating an indefinable version of low-fi black metal that mixes in generous dollops of doom and warped psychedelia. It shouldn’t work…yet it does. Crazy titles and song names are part of the FURZE experience and Caw Entrance lives up to that reputation. I suspect […]

Album Review: Darkestrah – Nomad

A fierce wind is blowing from the steppes once more. I hear thundering hooves on the horizon…DARKESTRAH has returned! I’ve loved this unusual band since hearing their masterpiece, The Great Silk Road, but they’ve been quiet the last few years. The silence is shattered with Nomad. This is one of the great black metal bands, with such a memorable, time-lost sound. Only the best can conjure up a true feeling of being from another time and place and DARKESTRAH have done this like no other. Yes, the style here is similar to The Great Silk Road and Turan. I hope […]

Album Review: Cancer Christ – God Is Violence

I remember the anti-poser crusades of the ’80s metal scene. Underground thrashers declaring war on sanitized hair metal and guys that spent more time with mirrors than instruments. This was quite a defining moment of those days, with sides taken and lines drawn. I think we need a new anti-poser crusade in the ’20s. Everywhere you look there are cosplay bands full of guys playing dress up, wearing masks and raiding the Spirit Halloween store for cheap makeup. A lot of these new-wave posers are supposedly in the harder sides of metal. I’m about as bored with monster bands wearing […]

Album Review: Stygian Crown – Funeral For A King

THIS is how you Doom! STYGIAN CROWN have written a textbook on epic slow motion metal with Funeral For A King and demonstrate just how this art should be performed. This is one of the best doom efforts of 2023 and might just slip onto my “Best Of” list for the year. This shit is heavy! Yet it is also stately and melodic…well composed and varied. The shadow of CANDLEMASS hangs deep over STYGIAN CROWN, but it’s not merely mimickry and there’s a thick burliness to the songs that exceeds what is generally heard from the Swedish masters. The title […]

Album Review: Plaguemace – Reptilian Warlords

In case you just woke up after being asleep for 10 years, death metal is a big deal again. Really. We are in the second great age of the gnarly subgenre and it is arguably producing more material than the first wave in the early ’90s. With this windfall, though, there are obviously good bands….and just as obviously bands that are bandwagon jumpers and also-rans. PLAGUEMACE is part of this second wave. Where do they fall on the spectrum of worthless to godlike? Well, it’s somewhere in the middle part….the lower middle part. This bunch hails for Denmark, which is […]

Album Review: SHYLMAGOGHNAR – Convergence

I first noticed SHYLMAGOGHNAR a couple of years ago, but never looked any further than their bizarre name. I thought it was silly at the time and figured they wouldn’t be worth my time. Curiosity finally compelled me to look further into this one-man outfit from Holland and I must confess, I was unfair to the band. This is quite a sonic adventure and an amazing achievement considering it was all done by one guy using a home studio. Convergence is really a perfect name for what SHYLMAGOGHNAR have come up with here. This record covers so many styles of […]

Album Review: Fuming Mouth – Last Day Of Sun

FUMING MOUTH from Massachusetts was one of the “buzz bands” that played Milwaukee Metalfest earlier this year, but I was unable to catch them. Boy, are these guys an awkward mish-mash of styles. When they are on point, they are extremely crushing, but when they experiment, the results are often clunky if not down right cringeable. Can you imagine a band that mixes Swedish death metal in the classic Stockholm style with choruses you’d find on radio rock nu-metal? You get it with FUMING MOUTH. Let us descend into their maelstrom. Last Day Of Sun is huge and rather bloated, […]

Album Review: Martyrdoom – As Torment Prevails

I often lament the utter lack of individuality and originality amongst modern death metal bands, but now and then an act arrives that is in such total mastery of the genre’s basics that such concerns are irrelevant. That brings us to Poland’s MARTYRDOOM and As Torment Prevails…these gross motherfuckers just plain plow you under the rancid Earth with this pulsating pustule of doom-tinged rottenness. Two things help elevate MARTYRDOOM; the quality of their riffs, which is outstanding, and the true feeling of morbid sickness, which is something that just can’t be faked. If you like greasy, oozing riffs drenched in […]

Album Review: Prong – State Of Emergency

State Of Emergency is lucky #13 for New York’s stalwarts PRONG. Judging by the photos accompanying the release, it seems the “band” is pretty much just Tommy Victor at this point. Of course, Tommy is so multi-talented that he doesn’t need anybody else. Except maybe when it comes to the live show. The album will satisfy and delight anyone who has ever grooved or thrashed to PRONG’s mechanistic style of heavy metal. And if you hated and ignored PRONG before, this won’t change your mind. Will it draw new ears to Tommy’s pride and joy? Maybe, if you give it […]

Album Review: Malokarpatan – Vertumnus Caesar

If you’ve never delved into the mystic world of MALOKARPATAN before, I strongly advise you to do so. Vertumnus Caesar is a perfect entry point for getting to know this extremely quirky metal band from Slovakia. Their sound has echoes of many of the giants of the past, yet it still manages to be its own animal, with a completely singular identity. These guys really do sound like they’ve come from a different time and place. They are deeply steeped in the lore of Central Europe and their lyrics and song titles are all in jaw-breaking Slovakian that I will […]