Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

lord randall

Album Reviews

Album Review: Sever – At Midnight, By Torchlight

So, let’s look at SEVER’s July 2022 Sadistic Sorcery demo as the moment of conception. What this does, in effect, is makes the April release of At Midnight, By Torch Light its birth. Now, what hath founder and (yep, you guessed it) sole entity Ma-Kaxul birthed? ‘Abyssonaut’ instantaneously assaults, clanging and cataclysmic, synths, strings and skins attacking from all sides, but retaining a sense of cohesion, impressive in such a storm. While the drums act more as a placeholder than anything else, I’d have liked to see a more dynamic role in this opener, but we’ve still 5 songs remaining, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Mork – Dypet

MORK is Thomas Eriksen. And if black metal is even in the periphery of your musical world, you are familiar with the name. For nearly two decades Eriksen has been a force of might and misanthropy, even more impressive that he’s churned out now six full-lengths as well as four EPs by his loathsome lonesome all within the past ten years. What sounds like your little brother’s dungeon synth project practicing in his bedroom soon enough is joined by mournful guitars, very near to doom in delivery, and suddenly the synth belongs there, seeming natural and fluid. Set alight and […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Treedeon – New World Hoarder

TREEDEON returns with its all-important third album, the intriguingly titled New World Hoarder. After a five-year absence. Well, I suppose “absence” really isn’t the right word, and with such a bleakly foreboding album as Under the Machineel to follow, the time it took was the time it took, and at least some of those days were dedicated to making thoughtful steps forward. And our first step into the result, ‘Nutcréme Superspreader’, begins with the sound of ocean birds, the tide against the shore, quickly enough joined by fuzzed out, fluid bass/guitar patterns, mangled then cauterized vocal chords over the top, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Kommand – Death Age

‘Final Virus’ begins, grinding and grisly, that punishing, brutal lurch forward of conflict that all humans have endured since Cain walloped his brother, Abel, with a rock. All the marks are ticked when it comes to influences, and we’ll shoot out a few of them here – BOLT THROWER, HERESIARCH, albeit not as unhinged overall, MALEVOLENT CREATION – but this isn’t some slinging against the wall in hopes a shred of legitimacy sticks. The stringed soldiers keep their tone so blasted low for the most part it’s hard to tell which is which outside of the solos, but it fits […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Oak – Disintegrate

Proving itself not only competent but comfortable in crafting longer songs with its debut, Lone, Portugal’s OAK returns with a single-track album, Disintegrate. CATHEDRAL wisely sidestepped the opportunity to do so when the disco doomlords “could’ve”, SLEEP blows minds and bong rips to this day courtesy of Dopesmoker (or Jerusalem, if you prefer), so it only remains to be heard if OAK “should’ve”. The opening track (also the closing track) begins with the feel of a soundtrack to a nature documentary or possibly of a community living destitute, separated by class, by creed, or by its own decision. Nothing is […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Austin Walkin’ Cane – Muscle Shoals

In the interest of forthrightness, yours truly spent some of the crappiest years of his life in the Shoals area of Alabama. A metal/punk kid coming up in the mid-‘80s had little chance of finding anything like a “group” of friends, hated my school, blah blah, the whole nine yards. So I dove headlong into books…and music. Thanks to an older skater my interest in truly different music was kindled and set to blaze, and a couple dudes who worked at the local record store became my rabbis, guiding me through a veritable Library Of Alexandria of music. All that […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Gatekeeper – From Western Shores

GATEKEEPER returns after five years between albums, hopefully bolstered by new blood, with From Western Shores. Sure, debut East Of Sun (itself released nearly 5 years after the band’s initial 2013 demo) was solid “enough”, but if a power/epic metal band isn’t truly epic – if I don’t end up leaping about the Citadel fending off hordes, carousing with fairy maidens and raising my battle axe high whilst standing victorious atop a pile of my enemy’s vanquished – then I tend not to revisit the album too often if at all, and it lies forgotten. To be honest, I’m a […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Sammath – Grebbeberg

After just shy of three decades, Dutch force SAMMATH knows well what it is and what it is not and, now seven albums into the fight, it damned well should. Over the past three albums, though, the band has transformed into a three-pronged attack led, as always by J. Kruitwagen. So let us march to Grebbeberg and hope we make it home, because not all will. Scandinavian black metal bands, especially in the more Northern countries, seem often quite obsessed with the topic and imagery of WWII – and not to lessen any losses from those battles – but the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Kruelty – Untopia

Tokyo five-pointed star of extremity KRUELTY returns with its second, Untopia, ‘Unknown Nightmare’ opening with a ritual type chant that lulls into a false sense of security, obliterated once the tune proper kicks in. Bulldozer riffs, one of the most addictive bass tones I’ve heard in too long and insistent drums bolster Tatami’s Straight Outta Stockholm vocal hysterics, the band moving deftly in and out of beatdown HXC, NIHILIST-ic stench and COFFINS crawl, and the first song ain’t even over yet. ‘Harder Than Before’ burns with a RINGWORM-like urgency, as frantic, but snapping into time to deliver a breakdown any […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Majesties – Vast Reaches Unclaimed

MAJESTIES arrives unexpectedly, comprising members of melodic metal Minnesotan entities OBSEQUIAE and INEXORUM. Vast Reaches Unclaimed is its debut, no demos or fanfare prior to release. Forward, then, we march… ‘In Yearning, Alive’ sets the standard, early DARK TRANQUILLITY, IN FLAMES when they mattered, underrated early work by German force NIGHT IN GALES being reference points, Tanner Anderson clearly enjoying being able to put his mid-range snarl to use in a way he doesn’t (normally) within his other main outlet. From even first listen, the production is sharp when needed, yet polished, almost brought to a glittering sheen simultaneously, a […]

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