Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Dr. Abner Mality

Album Reviews

Album Review: XPUS – In Umbra Mortis Sedent

XPUS are a mysterious new death metal force from Italy and they are well worth checking out if you like your DM gloomy, morbid and sounding like it just erupted from a rotten crypt. Although not without a flaw or two, these evil revenants perform the amazing feat of sounding fairly original while evoking the spirit of many early progenitors of death. If you prefer chunky, oozing riffs with the hint of doom, XPUS are your boys. Even their faster moments (and they are capable of DEICIDE level speed) have that essential feeling of sickness and sorrow. There are touches […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Thy Catafalque – Naiv

In almost every conceivable case, when I read a line in a band’s PR sheet that says their current album is “their least metal ever”, the hackles on my neck go up and I fear the worst. But not with THY CATAFALQUE, because I know Tamas Katai is in the driver’s seat. He knows where he’s going, he knows how to drive and his grip on the wheel is firm. With THY CATAFALQUE, Katai has consistently proven he’s the rarest of birds in today’s music scene…an honest to God composer. There is something about the way this man writes music […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Primeval Mass – Nine Altars

Now this is a real discovery! I’m sure we will be hearing a lot more from PRIMEVAL MASS, because on Nine Altars they have created a smoking blast of evil metal that rips at every turn. This is even more amazing when you learn that this is basically the work of one guy named Orth, who is influenced by everything from CORONER to STORMWITCH to ABSU to RUSH. You can actually hear those influences, and more, during the course of the album! On the whole, PRIMEVAL MASS is driven by speed, although they are capable of slower and more melodic […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Sepultura – Quadra

Few bands are more frustrating to analyze than modern day SEPULTURA. They’re always on the edge of a major breakthrough but never seen to make it. They are at the nexus where ambition meets pretension and it’s hard to tell which side is going to win at any time. I’ve always been someone willing to give the Cavalera-less band a good chance, and for the last few albums, flashes of brilliance are there. So is some really banal groove-thrash. The last album, Machine Messiah, seemed like a disorganized mess where they reached too far past where they should have. I’m […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Beast Of Revelation – The Ancient Ritual Of Death

There’s some high-powered veteran offense on display in BEAST OF REVELATION. Vocals and bass are delivered by no less than John McEntee of INCANTATION and FUNERUS fame, a man who’s had his gnarly finger on the pulse of rotten death metal for about three decades now. That’s a major component right there. Adding drumbeats to the BEAST is Bob Bagchus once of ASPHYX, now a part of INFIDEL REICH, HELLEHOND and more…another solid veteran. The agonizing guitars come from A.J. Drenth from the bands TEMPLE and THRONE. I’m not too familiar with them, but I’m guessing they don’t play pop […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Kawir – Adrasteia

No band symbolizes the essence of ancient Greece more than KAWIR. They never fail to evoke the timeless spirit of the old Greek gods and myths with their music, and Adrasteia is no exception. While I can’t say this is my favorite KAWIR album – that would be Father Sun, Mother Moon -, I can say that it has every attribute that makes these guys such a mesmerizing listening experience. Just six tracks here, but all are well developed. The opener ‘Tydeus’ is a bit of a slower burner, starting with a lot of chanting and a moderate pace before […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Haunt – Mind Freeze

HAUNT keep whipping them out like it’s 1972! Back then it wasn’t unusual for bands to release 2 full lengths a year. It hasn’t been much more than six months since the last HAUNT album If Icarus Could Fly came out, and that doesn’t even include HAUNT main man Trevor Church’s other band, BEASTMAKER, (now sadly defunct due to HAUNT’s success) having their own album out. Sometimes this kind of quantity affects quality…is that the case here? Mind Freeze is really what the new ANGELWITCH album, Angel Of Light, should have sounded like. It has that dark, musty production that […]

Interviews

INTERVIEW: LEGENDRY

Welcome to our humble pub here in the city of Ardona, far beyond the world you know. Have a seat and a tankard of ale while we listen to The Bard tell us of The Warrior with No Name. Here we await the presence of Vidarr, himself a bard of no mean renown, and the man behind the metal majesty of LEGENDRY, a band reveling in stories of courage, danger and high adventure. Vidarr knows much of the Warrior’s tale and has used LEGENDRY to tell the story. The latest chapter is The Wizard And The Tower Keep, which tells […]

Music News

Album Review: Rebel Priest – R’lyeh Heavy

I was expecting the usual gruesome death metal from the band and album names, but instead I got a shot of pure rocking heavy metal with traces of punk and stoner. It hooked me right away and if it wasn’t for one misstep at the end, I would have put this in the running for one of my top records of the year. This trio from Vancouver, B.C. don’t overthink things, they keep their music simple and full of hooks. There’s a fair amount of hair metal sleaze mixed with influences like MOTORHEAD, METAL CHURCH and LA. GUNS. ‘The Summoning’ […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Legendry – The Wizard And The Tower Keep

This is a real oddball release, and perhaps that is its greatest strength. With their 1982-era Dungeons And Dragons style artwork, Pennsylvania’s LEGENDRY looks like they might be another knock-off of NWOBHM and epic power metal. And indeed, you can find much of that style here. But there’s a lot more going on sonically here than can be described in one easy sentence. There’s a lot of ’70s love and worship in LEGENDRY. They have the kind of quirkiness that could be found in early SABBATH, RAINBOW, ’70s RUSH, even JETHRO TULL and KANSAS! They don’t restrict themselves to basic […]

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