Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

lord randall

Album Reviews

Album Review: Saor – Origins

Freshly back from his second album under the also solitary but more overtly blackened FUATH moniker, Andy Marshall returns with Origins, and it’s here we find SAOR returning to its, erm, Roots, yet looking brightly, brilliantly forward. Contemplative from the onset, ‘Call Of The Carnyx’ rolls in like fog across the moors, a hypnotic guitar phrasing, clan drums calling, beckoning to join, to heed the harkening. Soon enough, the fires are lit, and an energetic phrasing is held aloft by galloping rhythm, just as quickly to return to a brief gentler moment – and this is where the strength of […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Cavernous Gate – Voices From A Fathomless Realm

At over three minutes, the layered choral intonations, bell-like chimes, ritual drums of ‘That Night’ are less “intro” and more a full piece of the DEAD CAN DANCE / CURRENT 93 variety, gently tolling into ‘Old Graves Stir’. ‘Twixt forlorn crags, yet of majestic height we travel, summoned into the realm of death, stumbling over jagged riff, loss howling its fetid decay into our face in form of winds. Sebastian “S.K.” Körkemeier in his other roles, other bands has proven himself well versed in all shades of light and shadow, seeming to fully embrace the chance here to truly shine […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: The Necromancers – Where The Void Rose

Almost feels as if we’ve stumbled into some shady downtown bar mid-song, ‘Sunken Huntress’ wasting no time in reminding old friends and informing newcomers what THE NECROMANCERS is on about. There’s a bit of Magnus Pelander in new vocalist Basile Chevalier-Coundrain’s pipes, more complimentary than carbon copy, shades of the much-missed Michael Grant of CRESCENT SHIELD, and neither a bad thing. Musically, there’s a delightful blend of doom, SLOUGH FEG-styled rave-ups and even a sense of experimentation ala MASTODON’s post-Leviathan work on offer here. Certainly the most overtly Metal of the bunch, ‘The Needle’ marries early JUDAS PRIEST to a […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Blut Aus Nord – Disharmonium – Undreamable Abysses

Gurgling as expected, yet briefly before the maelstrom ensues, ‘Chants Of The Deep Ones’ instantly evokes themes Lovecraftian, shrieking keys and tempestuously cataclysmic rhythms, at once regal and rabid, unspeech slithering amid the cacophonic whirlwind of dementia. ‘Tales Of The Old Dreamer’ moves, swirls, hanging chords and patterns in the atmosphere, weaving robes of starlight and supernova, of black holes and blubbering, ranting acolytes. Already, we are in a world not of our making, or formed by human hands or minds. Roiling, reckless, ravenous, ‘Neptune’s Eye’ opens, drawing us deeper into the chaos brought into corporeal form in 1890 Rhode […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Panzerfaust – The Suns Of Perdition – Chapter III: The Astral Drain

‘Death-Drive Projections’ begins the third installment of the Suns Of Perdition tetralogy, and wastes no time, overpowering before the first syllable is uttered, towering, scaling heights also ascended to by only few, CULTED and IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT coming to mind in the sheer breadth of sonics involved. For those who’ve been following this project since ‘19s TSOP – Chapter I: War, Horrid War, this is a near-seamless transition, almost as if all albums thus far were in succession, 3 weeks instead of three years passing. After the first of 4 interludes, ‘B22: The Hive And The Hole’ rolls in, methodical, purposeful […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Spiritus Mortis – The Great Seal

Calling forth from the reservoir of vast knowledge (the internet in this case), ‘Puputan’ translates from Indonesian into “bellows” or “blowing”, but also relates to the Japanese act of mass ritual suicide. Either way, either meaning, SPIRITUS MORTIS certainly kicks things in the arse from the start here, new vocalist Kimmo Perämäki shredding both eardrums and his throat, a more rough ‘n’ ragged Robert Lowe, his allowance to let things “slip” from perfection from time to time infusing this TROUBLE-influenced circa ’90 jam (think Trouble) with a sense of urgency. Conjuring latter-day NEVERMORE in the riffing of ‘Death’s Charioteer’, Maijala […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Wake – Thought Form Descent

‘Infinite Inward’ slowly rolls into our vision over the horizon, an incoming tide lapping at the shore, and it’s clear WAKE is seeking something grander here. Soon enough, though, the softly swirling waters become waves of destructive proportions. Much like HAUNTER’s past few albums, I’ve become interested in what happens when screamo and/or grind bands veer hard left into metallic lands. For both bands, the move has actually made me take notice, as their approach to and way of looking at metal are wildly different than the norm. Encompassing, this opening benefits greatly from a pristine production, accentuating every nuance, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Cleanbreak – Coming Home

When you take a former QUIET RIOT vocalist, RIOT V’s lead guitarist for the past 2+ decades, and the rhythm section of STRYPER (who I’ve seen a few months back and can attest that the foursome is sounding more energized and robust than in years), something’s bound to happen. But what, pray tell? Well, let’s just see then, shall we? Leading off with a short yet subtle guitar pattern, it doesn’t take long for CLEANBREAK to get ‘Coming Home’ firing on all cylinders, Durbin’s vocals as reliable as ever, and the staccato riffing of Mike Flyntz riding atop the driving […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Cosmic Putrefaction – Crepuscular Dirge For The Blessed Ones

What do you do when it’s 5am, you’ve been awake around 10 minutes, and you don’t drink coffee? Apparently for me, you slap on some COSMIC PUTREFACTION to see what the day may bring. I’d like to say I’d heard of this Italian death metal outfit prior, but as it’s simply not the case, come along… Three albums in four years is no easy task, even for a full band. Factor in possible droughts in inspiration and quality of work, and it becomes all the more difficult. Lone gunman G.G. chooses to snatch me from Morpheus’ grip with the angular, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Nebula – Transmission From Mothership Earth

‘Highwired’ has a catchy riff-and-rhythm combination – as catchy as I’ve ever heard from the trio, to be fair. That mix, though. 33 seconds in I cringed at the sheer wrongness of it all. At the 1:12 mark, I was starting to get it, to let a bit of the groove and displacement of vocals, the chitter-chattery guitars into my uncloudy, not-high brain. By 2:30, I was all in, impressed that a band I never really cared for managed to pull something out of its baggie that not only held my attention, but take notice. Bluesy in a slinky sort […]

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