Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

lord randall

Album Reviews

Album Review: Dead Heat – Endless Torment [EP]

Ahh, crossover. That glorious, sweat ‘n’ stale beer-drenched alliance unexpectedly created by streetwise hardcore kids who became better musicians and suburbanite headbangers who wanted to add a bit more groove to the rapid-fire riff onslaught of thrash. And when your first album ends with a CRUMBSUCKERS cover, it’s clear you know your history. So let’s see what ya got, DEAD HEAT. ‘Endless Torment’ begins with a keyboard intro that lasts about 40 seconds and is, therefore, 40 seconds too long, but rest assured that once this Oxnard, California four-piece gets going all is forgiven. A more outright thrash attack during […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Blodulv – I, II, III – Burial

The early ‘00s were a time of sonic upheaval in black metal. Tectonic plates were shifting, stars were realigning into some configuration never dreamt of by black metal’s originators, and likely never intended by the 2nd Wave of the early ‘90s. EMPEROR silenced its existence for a time with the uber-progressive – and final – studio album, Prometheus: The Discipline Of Fire & Demise, France’s BLUT AUS NORD would drop The Work Which Transforms God in ’03, and ENSLAVED released the still-divisive Below The Lights. Into this shift strode BLODULV. With albums simply titled I, II and III – Burial, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Cloak – Black Flame Eternal

Having seen the Atlanta quartet open for IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT in what amounts to a shoebox with a bar inside earlier this year, I can vouch that CLOAK’s “is it black/death or death/black” hybridization does carry over well into a live setting. To be honest, I’ve never “gotten” the WATAIN comparisons, as, musically, CLOAK has more clarity while managing to haunt – and thus far thrive in – the shades beyond dark and light, good and evil when it comes to lyrical fare. Striking hard and early the anvil of the search for enlightenment, ‘Ethereal Fire’ ignites, the band sounding full-bodied […]

Music News

Album Review: Chrome Waves – Earth Will Shed Its Skin

Let’s just get this out of the way to start with. The term “post-” anything has begun to rub me very much the wrong way when it comes to genre identifiers. Yes, yes, I understand, due to the seemingly endless sub-sub-subgenres comingling in some bland incestuous orgy of redundancy, you “need” defining terms to guide you toward artists/bands that might be of interest. I get that. My true contention is that the prefix “post-” has been deep in glut for years now, much the same as the progressive scene experienced in the ‘70s. Chicago’s CHROME WAVES have been at it […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Waxen – Die Macht Von Hassen

Toby Knapp, within black/thrash and, for a time power metal, rivals Rogga Johansson and Chris Riefert in sheer output and projects, side and otherwise. We’ve all heard the whole “signed with Shrapnel at 19” story, which is admirable, indeed. It’s 2023, though, so we’re only judging Mr. Knap related to WAXEN, and thus… Robust from the start, ‘Die Macht Von Hassen’ sets the stage, all instruments mixed so as to give a sturdy sonic foundation to the blackened firestorm set to light before us. A semi-martial cadence on the drums soon slows to a near-doom crawl, yet loses none of […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Mournful Congregation – The Exuviae Of Gods – Part II [EP]

Surprisingly, it didn’t take long for funeral doom to make the journey from its birthplace (in either England or Scandinavia, a hot point of a debate which has no place in this review) to the primarily sunlit lands of Australia so, for purists – who also likely already know and follow the five-piece – MOURNFUL CONGREGATION were there “back then”. And thus, doth The Exuviae Of Gods – Part II begin with a new recording of ‘Heads Bowed’, from 1995’s An Epic Dream Of Desire demo. Never having been one for re-recordings, feeling them dangerously close to revisionist history, the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Lunar Chamber – Shambhallic Vibrations [EP]

Scattered from the Quebec metal stronghold of Montreal, to the eldritch darkness of Rhode Island, to the somewhat unlikely sun-scorched humidity of an Atlanta suburb cometh forth LUNAR CHAMBER and Shambhallic Vibrations. Add to this concoction the members’ chosen monikers of They, Who May Not Be Perceived, Timeworn Nexus and Æther Lotus, and it’s a recipe for either a mind-altering experience or a complete and total wankfest. There really can’t be a middle ground here, you know? The intro/title track sets the scene, already eliciting an Eastern (pardon the pun, or don’t) vibe, and there’s something about a fretless bass […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Melt Motif – Particles. Death Objective

Blended Brazilian / Norwegian combo, MELT MOTIF quietly (or, maybe not so) crept into my Top 10 List for 2022, A White Horse Will Take You Home’s otherworldliness and simple refusal to be beholden to any “scene” or single genre alluring from first listen. The debut got comfortable over repeated listens but, to this day, will occasionally reveal some previously-hidden glitch, beat or melody, the mark of a truly good album. How, then, to top this? I have come to believe the often-documented “sophomore slump” – which also plagued GUNS ‘N’ ROSES after Appetite For Destruction – is at least […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Dawn Of Ouroboros – Velvet Incandescence

‘Healing Grounds’ wafts into the consciousness, vocalist Chelsea Murphy gossamer, almost too light for air over ethereal jazz that imagines Johnny Mercer doing a set in the outer reaches of the cosmos. When the metal shows up (and it does), it’s ultra-melodic and equally of space, but this is more a testament to the instrumentalists’ skill and ability to conjure a mood than anything else. Murphy’s siren song becomes shriek, the Baker/Thomas guitar duo displays a familiarity with their craft many could take a lesson from. Don’t think you’re in for some fey ride through lightweight lands for long, though, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Liv Kristine – River Of Diamonds

LIV KRISTINE, she of the many bands/projects/faces returns with her sixth solo effort, River Of Diamonds. While yours truly had never really “gotten” LEAVES’ EYES, preferring her work with THEATRE OF TRAGEDY and MIDNATTSOL, the issue was never her vocals, more the musical style. This will be my first foray into LIV KRISTINE, the solo artist. And, as I’m not expecting Velvet Darkness They Fear, I feel I’ll be able to approach the album objectively. ‘Our Immortal Day’ begins, awash in keys, a throbbing bassline and the tandem vocal delivery (shared here by Osten Bergoy of LONG NIGHT and TRISTANIA) […]

Older Posts