Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

independent

Short Sharp Shocks

Royal Blunder – Only More Is Enough [EP]

You’ve got four songs and I’ve only got 120 words, ROYAL BLUNDER, so let’s cut to the chase. Where do you get off cranking out a syncopated rocker like ‘The Clock’ right from the start? I’m hearing DANIEL AMOS here, but sweetened with just enough sugar to make the whole thing go down oh, so smooth. And that title track, the fiery guitar lead-in, that’s just uncalled for! Give us a minute to catch up, fellas, our media-addled brains can’t take all these goodtime grooves and positivity at once! The psych/pop of ‘Sherlock Holmes’ bleeds XTC, and ‘Blink’ capping this […]

Uncategorized

CLAMFIGHT: New Jersey Sludge/Doom Metal Quartet Prepares To Release Eponymous Fourth LP On May 16th; ‘The Oar’ Streaming + Preorders Posted

New Jersey/Philly sludge beasts CLAMFIGHT are prepared to self-release their eponymous fourth full-length release this Spring, unveiling the cover art, track listing, preorders, and lead single, ‘The Oar’. The members of CLAMFIGHT are childhood friends who played their first show together in the Fall of 2005. The band’s lineup has remained the same ever since, with bassist Louis Koble, guitarists Joel Harris and Sean McKee, and drummer/vocalist Andy Martin. Over the past twenty years, the band has played shows along the entire East Coast and beyond, having shared a lot of laughs and shenanigans as well as loss and heartache […]

Short Sharp Shocks

ASASARA – 777 [EP]

Massachusetts duo ASASARA returns with its second EP. ‘Myself Made Perfect’ is fluid in execution, rhythms at a just-below-mid-paced tempo. Stellar soloing greets us soon enough, a SACRED REICH vibe in both riffery and Niko Galanis’ vocals. ‘The Jaws Of Life’ begins in much the same way, and ends in…yep, you guessed it. I’m sensing a pattern, and the gymbro hardcore gang shouts in both this and ‘Limitless Vision’ only add to my ears’ misery. A traditional Greek song ends 777, and, sadly, it couldn’t have happened soon enough. Obviously talented are Galanis and drummer Emidio Alexandre; the problem is […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Negative 13 – Recover What You Can

‘The Desolate’ does the rare thing that intros actually do, which is set the listener up for what’s in store. In this case, a plodding rumble/riff join forces to tumble us headlong into the SIXTY WATT SHAMAN-ic swinging groove of ‘Casket Trail’ {Scott] Fisher retains the hardcore-tinged snarl that’s suited him well as far back as the NEGATIVE THEORY days, and the band has more than a bit of My War-era BLACK FLAG in its sense of the disjointed when it comes to putting a song together, then nearly wrecking the whole thing so as to make it seem it’s […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Slow Burn Drifters – Golden

Any PR one-sheet that compares its subject to TINDERSTICKS immediately has my interest, so let’s just get that out of the way. Formed as the wave of what passed for “alternative rock” was reaching its crest in 1991, the Brits were an anomaly in the same way (though not in the same style) as THE AFGHAN WHIGS, more akin at times to explorations of soul music or late ‘60s R&B than the “loud-for-loud’s-sake” bands of the time. But this isn’t a TINDERSTICKS review, so let’s throw that line of thought on the fire…for now. Though 12 albums deep into his […]

Music News

FLESHSPOIL (feat. Arsis, The Final Sleep, Illucinus alumni) Releasing Debut Album in March

Troy (NY) – A new force in Blackened Death Metal has emerged to lay waste to 2025! FLESHSPOIL, featuring veteran players from Arsis, The Final Sleep, and Illucinus, will release full-length debut album, The Beginning Of The End, March 28 on digital format. Fans of classic death, black, and doom metal take note! FLESHSPOIL delivers a haunting and aggressive soundscape, and features a lineup of seasoned musicians: Jeff Andrews (guitar/vocals), a veteran of New York’s metal scene, known for his work with The Final Sleep, Armor Column, Hush, Ironweed, Scavengers, and Held Under. Mike Van Dyne (drums), known for his […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: The Kearns Family – Together And Alone

Take a husband and wife old-time music duo, give them a sound to paint to, a touch of JOHNNY DOWD, and more than a little style. Now, take those two, put them in the Mojave Desert, and put a few mics in the room. What comes out is Together And Alone. ‘The Dust’ immediately resonates, bell-clear and crystalline despite its title, Susan Kearns’ upright bass already as integral to the sound as the weathered, careworn voice of Pat. Grains of BRETT DETAR are sifted through vocal cords just this side of brittle, a breath away from brimstone and heart-deep in […]

Short Sharp Shocks

NECRONOMICON EX MORTIS – The Mother Of Death [EP]

Churning out two EPs last year and as many this year, adding up to the playing time of pretty much a single album, Chicagoans NECRONOMICON EX MORTIS return with The Mother Of Death. ‘Trick Or Treat’ leads, a beefed up RUMPLESTILSKIN GRINDER blended with ACID WITCH vocals, obsession with ‘70s/’80s horror flicks in full force. While the drums could stand a bit more heft in the mix, and the guitars tend to get buried in the bass-heavy mix, ‘Infestation’ and the title track are punchy and chock fulla riffs. The ambient ‘Itchy Tasty’ is surprisingly worthwhile, and ‘Salem’s Lot’ conjures […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Black Sites – The Promised Land?

Roughly three years after Untrue, BLACK SITES returns with fourth album, The Promised Land? Don’t let the fact that the band’s now trimmed to a trio worry you, as opener, ‘Descent’ sets the standard, robust and ready, the lyric “Cometh now the punishment for sins of yesterday / for those who lie, how many times betrayed?” laying a dark tone. Founding guitarist/vocalist Mark Sugar’s vocal range is firmly entrenched in the mid-range, so those in search of vocal gymnastics or histrionics may initially be put off, but for fans of equally melodic bands such as SOUND & SHAPE and Parallels […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Atom Driver – Occupants [EP]

By my count Occupants is ATOM DRIVER’s sixth EP, despite the band being around since 2016 with nary a full-length to show for it. Doesn’t matter, though, as the title track immediately jettisons me back to the days of snagging 7” from record stores by bands that fired off a couple-few songs at a time, little sonic pioneers, out into the frontier of independent shops, squats and bookstores. Shades of SNAPCASE’s more accessible work, JAWBREAKER’s Bivouac shove us headlong into ‘Say Anything You Want’, the snarling guitar recalling the abrasion of CAVE IN, but again, filtered through the lens of […]

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