Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Dr. Abner Mality

Album Reviews

Album Review: KK’S Priest – Sermons Of The Sinner

I probably don’t need to go over K.K. Downing’s history for anybody reading this review. Chances are you know just as much as I do, although it’s worth noting that K.K.’s history with JUDAS PRIEST goes all the way back to 1969. I’m sure you also know that, with Glenn Tipton, he was part of the guitar duo that revolutionized the concept of heavy metal and set the bar for just about every other band in the genre. It’s already been 10 years since Ken left PRIEST. I’d imagine the metal fire has been smoldering in him for most of […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Moon Oracle – Muse Of The Nightside

Well, what have we here? Something original and different, instead of another retread of ’80s or ’90s black metal? Yes indeed, and it’s about time. MOON ORACLE is from the “freaked out” branch of the black metal tree. In the end, my interest in Muse Of The Nightside kind of fades away, but I sure give the band credit for trying to rock the boat here. You know the typical complaint where bass guitar seems to get short-changed in black metal? Well, MOON ORACLE comes pretty close to overcompensating for this. The bass is the overwhelming be-all and end-all of […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Enforced – Kill Grid

Here it is…100% thrash metal PERFECTION! I was hoping that ENFORCED would rise to the challenge…and they have! These Virginia hellhounds have made a strong argument with Kill Grid that they are the rightful heirs of SLAYER. This album is full of the same balls-out intensity that made Hell Awaits and Reign In Blood classics. You doubt me? Slip this sucker in, hit play, and prepare to be battered and bruised by a whirlwind of steel! ‘The Doctrine’ starts with a medium crunchy build before exploding into pure holocaust of speed and intensity. Did ENFORCED blow their wad early? Along […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Withered – Verloren

Dense, depressing and heavy, WITHERED arise from the Georgia swamps once more with Verloren. This band is an ever-changing enigma, but one thing you can always be certain of no matter what album you pick up: the music will be darker than the bottom of a well. Verloren keeps pace with the nightmarish age we find ourselves in. This is a suffocating kind of album, one that doesn’t allow much light to escape. WITHERED’s sound has always been hard to make a comparison to, but it’s thick, smothering death metal with touches of sludge and the Gothic. ‘By Tooth In […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: The Slow Death – Siege

Never has a band been more accurately named. I could feel all the remaining seconds of my life tumble into oblivion as this tedious blob of boring doom metal numbed my very soul. This is one of the dullest records I have heard in a long, long time. Let’s write 20-minute long songs just because we can. Not that they’d actually be better in less than half the time, we’ve got to show we are DOOOOOOOM metal. Stuff and nonsense! It’s getting so that every time I see a song longer than 10 minutes, I cringe internally, because I know […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Lucifer’s Hammer – The Trip

There are a lot of ’80s inspired metal bands coming from South America today, but Chile’s LUCIFER’S HAMMER is the king of them all. This wonderful band just oozes metal class from every pore, and fans of great guitar work and melody in particular should waste no time tracking this down. Beyond The Omens was excellent in itself, but The Trip levels up in a big way, as it’s more classical and epic in style, with more complex songs that aren’t afraid to jam a little. Who does LUCIFER’S HAMMER sound like? Early MERCYFUL FATE and HELSTAR are good starting […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Darkthrone – Eternal Hails

Well, true to form, the 19th DARKTHRONE album sounds like it was recorded on a 4-track in a barn somewhere in Norway. That much is expected, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be bad. Eternal Hails is definitely the band’s “doom metal” album. Slower tempos have been a strong part of DARKTHRONE for much of the “primitive punk metal” period of the last 15 years or so, but never have they played such a significant role. To be quite honest, the album is a very mixed bag for me. The doom is across all five lengthy tracks, mixed with the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Starlight Ritual – Sealed In Starlight

If you’re in the mood for pure heavy metal that sounds a lot “truer” than most of what falls under that heading these days, I introduce you to Canada’s STARLIGHT RITUAL. These guys do things the right way and deliver hard-hitting melodic metal that reminds of HIGH SPIRITS, MAGIC CIRCLE and the like. It sounds authentic, delivered effortlessly, and not with the feeling that the band is trying too hard to fit a certain mold. They apparently started out as a doom band, but many of the tracks here have sizable thrust and forward velocity, starting with ‘Marauders’, where echoes […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Fluids – Not Dark Yet

MORBID ANGEL in their classic period had a signature tune called ‘Where The Slime Live’. Well, now we know where the slime lives…covered in FLUIDS! This is one sick, disgusting display of uber-primitive death metal devolution, making overhyped stuff like SANGUISUGABOGG sound about as dangerous as ATREYU. This band is working the same general territory as MORTICIAN, which is not a type of death metal you encounter a lot these days. FLUIDS makes no secret of their love of Hacked Up For Barbecue vintage MORTICIAN. Not Dark Yet oozes with rotten slow and mid-paced riffs that are down-tuned and bass-heavy […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Oxblood Forge – Decimator

Sometimes one critical element can trip a band up. Exhibit A: Boston-based OXBLOOD FORGE, a band specializing in classic heavy metal with a doomy tinge. That kind of material is right up the Doctor’s alley, but one thing brings my enjoyment of the band to a screeching halt. “Screeching” is the correct term, because the vocals of Ken Mackay are 100% amateur hour. It doesn’t take long at all for Mackay’s tuneless shrieks to manifest. From the first second his voice appears on the hard-driving ‘Into The Abyss’, you can tell something is way out of whack. I get the […]

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