Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Dr. Abner Mality

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 […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Strigoi – Abandon All Faith

VALLENFYRE is no more. The crusty death metal project of PARADISE LOST’s Gregor Mackintosh has breathed its last. But rushing in to fill the gap is STRIGOI, named after demons of Romanian folklore. The differences between VALLENFYRE and STRIGOI are not extreme, but they are there and it’s a good bet that fans of both VALLENFYRE and PARADISE LOST will enjoy the murky gloom of Abandon All Faith. Though the debut has the same grimy feel as VALLENFYRE, Abandon All Faith is a little more varied and, on occasion, more sophisticated. ‘Phantoms’, ‘Carved Into Skin’ and the title track all […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell – Very Uncertain Times

Yes, these are very uncertain times indeed, but fortunately we can rely on the good ADMIRAL SIR CLOUDESLEY SHOVELL to blast our brainwaves with greasy, gritty retro-rock on a fairly predictable basis. This is getting to be one of those “never fail” bands and I can’t think of anybody doing the early ’70s proto-metal/blues rock shtick with more authenticity and good humor than the good ADMIRAL. It is tedious to repeat in each successive review of ASCS, but these guys are able to channel the rugged, raw and loud sounds of the early 70’s blues rock scene with amazing fidelity. […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Angel Witch – Angel Of Light

Talk about an erratic album schedule…ANGEL WITCH should top that list. The last effort from the NWOBHM giants was As Above, So Below back in 2012…7 years ago. Over the last three decades, I’m never exactly sure if these guys are an active band or not, but Angel Of Light definitely declares that ANGEL WITCH is back in the game. My feelings towards this one are conflicted. It is certainly true to the classic ANGEL WITCH style of gloomy and galloping melodic metal that approaches doom, but is not quite there. The band hasn’t thrashed up their style or gone […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Warsenal – Feast Your Eyes

Here’s a shot of something fresh in the thrash world. Hailing from the metal hotbed of Montreal, WARSENAL is doing something a bit different than just imitating what has gone before, but at the same time, they have the feel of something that could have come from the glory days of thrash. Think of ’80s thrashers that went against the grain; REALM, ANNIHILATOR, DBC, even VOI VOD. That’s the ballpark these guys are trying to inhabit. Feast Your Eyes is fast! Above all else, these guys play with high velocity, but favor unusual time changes and riffing patterns. It is […]

Show Reports

Show Report: OBITUARY / ABBATH / MIDNIGHT / DEVIL MASTER

OBITUARY / ABBATH / MIDNIGHT / DEVIL MASTEROct. 13, 2019The Majestic, Madison, WIBy: Dr. Abner Mality I was in a bind. There were a number of cool concert options available to me, but with this inconvenient thing called a weekend work schedule looming over me like a dark cloud, I could select only one show to get time off for. It wound up being this one and I think it was a solid choice. From top to bottom, this was an interesting lineup for the diehard metal connoisseur. The show was originally scheduled for the Sylvee but moved to The […]

Interviews

Interview: Tomb Mold

Our planet is in peril. Does it have its own consciousness, its own voice? Perhaps it speaks to us through music. If Canada’s TOMB MOLD are the conduit for this planetary mind, then the voice of the world is more of a scream of rage and horror. That is what TOMB MOLD captures on their new album Planetary Clairvoyance. The band has been one of the most talked about in death metal circles for the last few years. Few bands can capture both sickness and technicality like TOMB MOLD can. They also have a cosmic/science fiction edge which gives their […]

Music News

Album Review: White Ward – Love Exchange Failure

Long time music reviewers all have to deal with the possibility of burnout. You get so much thrown at you, it becomes increasingly difficult to be moved by a piece of music. In the metal realm, you hear a lot of “good” stuff that is pleasing but soon forgot. More rarely, you encounter a real headbanger that gets your blood flowing. But still it doesn’t enter the realm of something profound, of music that really opens your eyes and inspires. Those kind of records come along very, very rarely. Here is one that transcends the metal tag. I had no […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Exhumed

On their previous album Death Revenge, EXHUMED experimented with more involved songwriting and a conceptual storytelling approach. Reaction to the record was decidedly mixed, so the gorehounds have gone back to basics and stripped their music to the literal bone. Horror disposes of the long songs and ambient interludes and dives into a pit of simple gory grind. The band is probably going to want to kill me for this, but I actually prefer Death Revenge. That was an album that took a few risks with the formula. Horror is pretty much formula deathgrind right to the core. With sixteen […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Wraith – Absolute Power

This unheralded trio from Indiana have come up with a sizzling firecracker of an album…a brief but blistering blast of thrash with a rock n roll touch that so far is one of the best records of its kind this year. This is about a half hour of thrash that will drop you on your head. The chief comparison I can make to WRAITH would be MIDNIGHT, but I think I enjoy Absolute Power even more than MIDNIGHT’s last album. It’s definitely thrash metal, but with a punky, rawky edge to it. The opening one-two punch of ‘Devil’s Hour’ and […]

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