Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Dr. Abner Mality

Album Reviews

Album Review: Picture – Wings

PICTURE is a band that almost made it big in heavy metal. Like many other bands of the dawn of the metal age, they SHOULD have made it big. All the tools were there. It’s been 40 years since these Dutchmen first made their mark. Is there a place for PICTURE in 2019? You bet your sweet bippy there is. Wings has such a flavor of what made metal great in the early ’80s and that formula still works today. You’d have to be dead inside to not get a warm fuzzy feeling from this record. This is where classic […]

Album Reviews

ALBUM REVIEW: Gaahl’s Wyrd – GastiR – Ghosts Invited

There’s no doubt that Mr. Kristian Espedal better known as GAAHL is one of the most polarizing, if not the most polarizing figure on the black metal scene. And so he’s been for quite some time. Much of it seems to revolve around his sexuality, which I could give a rat’s ass about. It’s no more pertinent with Gaahl than it is with Rob Halford or the dude from TORCHE. But even beyond that, the guy’s been a real outsider since Day One and in a lot of ways he sums up the rebel aspect of black metal a lot […]

Show Reports

Show / Festival Report: NYDM Spring Bash X – 2019

NYDM SPRING BASH XFeaturing ANVIL, EVILDEAD, HIRAX & many othersApril 18-20, 2019Club Garibaldi and Cactus Club, Milwaukee, WIBy: Dr. Abner Mality**Special Thanks to Scary Dan Gildea + Scaryhouse for assistance!** Well, that’s a wrap! After 10 years, one of the best metalfests in the Midwest, if not the USA, comes to an end and with it, a lot of memories. I made all but one of these events. I can’t tell you how many bands I was able to cross off my bucket list because of NYDM Spring Bash. Well, maybe I can…how about OMEN, ARTILLERY, WHIPLASH, POSSESSED, RUTHLESS, and […]

Interviews

Interview: Nocturnus A.D.

THE QUEST OF DR. MAGUSInterview with Mike Browning of NOCTURNUS A.D. By: Dr. Abner Mality In the hallowed year of 1990, nothing was shaking up the metal scene more than death metal. Every place you looked, bands were becoming faster, more distorted, more evil and more transgressive. But who shook up the shakers? Enter NOCTURNUS… The Key was a forward thinking paradigm shift in the death metal world. If you wanted to do something to cross a line, then just add keyboards to death metal. That was considered the ultimate no-no back then. But The Key managed to integrate eerie […]

Album Reviews

ALBUM REVIEW: Magic Circle – Departed Souls

Finally, some honest music. MAGIC CIRCLE have been a kind of cult name in doom metal circles the last few years and have shown a talent for epic metal in the CANDLEMASS vein. Their previous effort Journey Blind was a really strong release that definitely aimed for that mark. On Departed Souls, they are going for a more earthy vibe, injecting some blues and classic rock elements into the heaviness. Think of PENTAGRAM and early BLACK SABBATH more than CANDLEMASS this time around. Most importantly, this has a real pure analog sound to it. Praise be to the metal gods […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Paladin – Ascension

The buzz has been strong on this Atlanta band in the last few weeks, and they seem to be the latest darlings of the “true metal” crowd. I find Ascension entertaining enough, but I really have an issue with calling this an ode to ‘80s style power metal. That description leads me to expect something that draws a lot of influence from the likes of OMEN, MANILLA ROAD and the like. PALADIN to me sounds like they’re the second coming of 3 INCHES OF BLOOD mixed with the shredding guitar frenzy of DRAGONFORCE. The songs are fast, leaning to thrash, […]

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 […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Wormwitch – Heaven That Dwells Within

This is my first encounter with WORMWITCH. The band belongs to a kind of subgenre where gloom reigns and black metal is just one flavor in an overall tasting. It resembles the approach of another band I recently encountered, FROSTHELM. But there is an extra layering of melody and mood here that surpasses what FROSTHELM was able to achieve. This is a pretty sophisticated sound with a number of subtle layers. All the songs here are quite involved and have a root in black metal. Changes in riff and tempo are frequent but there are some catchy hooks that make […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Nocturnus AD – Paradox

There has been an avalanche of really cool releases in the last month…the first new POSSESSED in more than 30 years, the latest from SUNN 0))), new ARCH/MATHEOS, many interesting works from lesser known bands. Well, this might just be the best out of all of them. Never have I heard such a perfect sequel to a classic almost 30 years old. The Key by NOCTURNUS (no A.D. back then) was released in 1990 and really changed the death metal paradigm. It was the first work that showed synthesizers and keyboards could be integrated into extreme death metal successfully. The […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: MANEGARM – Fornaldarsagor

This is a lusty and full-blooded offering of Viking/pagan metal from veterans who clearly know what they are doing. I put MANEGARM along with HEIDEVOLK at the top of the pagan metal heap and one listen to Fornaldarsagor will show you why. This is energetic, varied metal with an excellent production. Pagan metal often borrows from its darker brother black metal, and MANEGARM is no exception. ‘Sveablotet’ opens the festivities with a massive wall of guitar power that leaps into a fast, black metal tinged blast.I will tell you right off the bat that if you don’t like foreign language […]

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