Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

lord randall

Album Reviews

Album Review: Street Tombs – Existence Is Corruption

Santa Fe’s STREET TOMBS approaches its stench-ridden tenth year writhing in life’s rotting embrace, and what better way to celebrate with a hopefully pummeling death metal monster? Let’s find out if Existence Is Corruption… Careening and crusted over, ‘Pestilent Storm’ spot welds the early Combat Core sound of ENGLISH DOGS and BROKEN BONES to MONSTROSITY’s Imperial Doom with devastating consequences. ‘Deceptor’ bristles with a more thrash style, as ‘Septic Values’ returns us to the oft’ missed days and nights of shows at local punk squats/basements with 6-10 bands (“$5 or bring canned food for donation to the local food bank”) […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Horrifier – Revelations Of Gore

Returning to revile after last year’s walloping Burial Ground EP, Oslo’s HORRIFIER opens its dread tome of death to reveal Revelations Of Gore. After the obligatory intro of ‘Voices’ (check!), ‘Compelled To Slaughter’ begins not with a bang, but a low-level dungeon doom crawl before ripping the lid off with early CANNIBAL CORPSE riffing. That it eventually returns to the realms of doom for the bridge seems less like a throwaway idea and more the foursome stretching themselves, so that by the time the song careens to its explosive end we’re captivated by the off-kilter rhythms, a musical car crash […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Wormwood – Å [EP]

Over a decade and four albums into its career, Sweden’s WORMWOOD knows what it is and what it is not. This doesn’t at all prevent the band from stretching itself, as in the newest EP, Å. ‘Yra|Extas’ ignites at the start, and possibly too quickly moves to a mid-paced yet robust and cinematic pattern, and we’re in and on the journey. A languid, understated jazz influence arrives, in no rush, slowly building back to boisterous and highly tuneful blackness. Lastly, ‘Purposeless Geometry’ delves into certain ULVER in its use of electronics, but with guitars reeking of such melody even the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Stormkeep – The Nocturnes Of Iswylm

While there is a Denver sound – make no mistake about it; from the twang ‘n’ travail of early 16 HORSEPOWER to the tent revival atmosphere of SLIM CESSNA’S AUTO CLUB, to the prairie-wide expansiveness of those first several ACROSS TUNDRAS albums to the Western noir of WAYFARER – the “sound” has always been more beholden to an ancient land, olden times, a sense of exploration of the soul and world itself that is truly of its surroundings than to genre convention. In this realm, the symphonic black metal of STORMKEEP may seem out of place, at least on the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Morgal – The Seventh Circle

Though over a decade in existence, The Seventh Circle is only MORGAL’s second album, and first as a quartet. 2020’s Nightmare Lord was a nasty barrage typical of the band’s native Finland, but one got the feeling that more could be done. Founders SS Exiler [drums] and Crusher [guitars] must’ve felt the same; to that end, a new bassist/vocalist [Tomb Nekrofiler] and guitarist by the name of Killhammer were added to the force. ‘Stormchaser’ wafts in on calm, subtle winds, only for a NIFELHEIM-styled lightning ‘n’ thunder orgy to fuck the sky with fire and acid. The band’s tighter than […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Sunswarm – Those Who Do Not Build Must Burn

When I was at university starting in ’90, I remember spending as much time scanning/raiding the racks of magazines at the local Tower Records as time in class. There was a rag I picked up a few issues of there called Industrial Metal. Sure, there were the articles on JUDAS PRIEST, FORBIDDEN etc,; but sprinkled throughout were features on bands such as TREPONEM PAL, SWAMP TERRORISTS and FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY, sparking an interest in and appreciation for the combination of metal’s power and electronic music’s pounding pulse and sonic expansiveness that continues to this day. Enter SUNSWARM and its debut […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Nine Pound Hammer – Too Outlaw For Outlaw Country [MLP]

NINE POUND HAMMER swung its first swing four decades ago as BLACK SHEEP, and – aside from a brief stint when guitarist Blaine Cartwright and vocalist Scott Luallen were abducted by Van Aliens from the galaxy of Hillbillicus TNT in order that they might bring their snotnosed, beer drankin’, Hellraisin’ country/punk hybrid to the sextraterrestrial masses – have been at it ever since. Too Outlaw For Outlaw Country continues the spread the gospel of giddyup, the title track already kicking on its way out of the chute, so best we just try to hang on for the ride and not […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: FORSMÁN – Brenndar rústir & fuƌrandi fjörur

Ice is beautiful; from icebergs the size of small islands drifting on the world’s seas, to the peaks of the highest mountains, to the frozen lakes of the North. Ice is deadly; from the countless shipwrecks caused by icebergs, to the frozen carcasses on Everest, to the skater or fisherman falling through the not-so-frozen surface of a lake thought to be solid. The same can be said of FORSMÁN’s debut full length, Brenndar rústir & fuƌrandi fjörur (rough translation: Burnt ruins & flowing shores), released via Vesperian. The album begins, ‘Drottinn fyrirgefur allt’ rumbling and roiling, lava boiling and rising […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Wailin Storms – The Arsonist

Durham, North Carolina’s WAILIN STORMS has been at it for just over a decade, peddling its brand of Americana, Southern gothic and would-be post-punk over the course of four albums and countless road miles, now culminating in The Arsonist, released on Season Of Mist. Let’s see if the flame flickers or scorches, then, shall we? I’m sure the introduction to ‘Dead End’ was supposed to be ominous, heralding some sort of tragedy, but what the tragedy is, is that the quarter-baked idea never even becomes a half-baked song. I see where they’re going, attempting to blend the Old West-influenced Gothicism […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Ruyned – Profanum Sacrificium

With previous releases titled Eternal Torment and Sex’n Speed, Timișoara, RUYNED made it clear that its goal was to unleash short but effective battle raids into the lands of modern metal, armed with weapons and vengeance from a time long past. On its second, Profanum Sacrificium, the band switches gears, guided by its vengeful wrath for the travesty of Europe’s roughly two centuries of witch hunting, trials and torment of innocents by the truly guilty. A contemplative guitar and keyboard pattern lulls us into false security, soon to be shredded by the rakish ‘n’ ragged roar of ‘Speedchain’. More precise […]

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