Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

lord randall

Album Reviews

Album Review: Nanowar Of Steel – Dislike To False Metal

First things, first, let’s be clear; while yours truly most assuredly sees the humor and sheer ridiculousness of a good many trappings of heavy metal, the one thing you’ll never read in these pages, hear from my lips is a lack of seriousness about the music. And I think that’s what puts me off about bands like NANOWAR OF STEEL most of all – the sheer grade school level banality from the start. And don’t even get me going on Metalocalypse, a show that could’ve been endearing but ended up doing more damage than any chuckles were worth by playing […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Merlock – Onward Strides Colossus

After an EP that was released just as a worldwide pandemic began tightening its grip, as well as a debut released in the throes of same, I was interested to see what a “post-pandemic” MERLOCK would deliver. And thus, Onward Strides Colossus. ‘Sovereign Throne’ eases us in, watery, fluid and floating, psychedelic in the way so many of the post-whatever crowd attempt, but it’s evident here, and natural. Blues-ridden, moving to a trot at around the halfway point, when I’d like to have seen the earlier given a chance to develop more color. One thing that’s always been true about […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Temptress – See

Christian Wright’s bass, languid and flowing, puts us out to the seas of See (see what I did there?), a healthy bit of AIC grunge in the mood TEMPTRESS is in search of as Kelsey Wilson’s guitars wash atop the surface, breaking the foam. I can’t help but feel like I’m still waiting on the song to start at the halfway mark, though. The harmonized vocals of Wilson/Wright are holding interest, and Andi Cuba’s rhythms are locked in ala Ringo Starr, providing a bedrock base for what’s going on around her. I’m just not sure what is going on, is […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Bodyfarm – Ultimate Abomination

Returning with its fifth full-length in just over a decade, Netherlands death machine BODYFARM brings hopes to bring us Ultimate Abomination. ‘Torment’ begins the assault, the scattershot sound of European death (early WOMBBATH a reference point), but mixed with the grime of OBITUARY’s pre-The End Complete years making no secret of the band’s influences. There’s a freshness to it, though, ‘Symbolical Warfare’ a head-down, forward-charging rager ala SLAYER before they lost their balls, new drummer David Schermann keeping the tank rolling forward and furiously. You don’t just walk into a band like BODYFARM with no preparation, and – as a […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Dreams Of Gray – The World After [EP]

Black metal has, even since the days of BATHORY and BURZUM, been the enclave of the solitary, and there’s a better than likely chance that, in 2023, the solo practitioners of the art far outnumber more traditional bands. Not so, the realm of doom. Or, in the case of Illinois’ DREAMS OF GRAY, a death/doom hybrid. Austria’s SELENITE comes to mind, the funereal liturgy of Italy’s NOCTU, but the genre as a whole lends itself to collaboration, strangely; a camaraderie of the sorrowful, if you will. Misery does love company, after all. More active in ABOLISHER of the mid-‘90s to […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: SANGUISUGABOGG – Homicidal Ecstasy

After the four song Pornographic Stench demo of 2019, SANGUISUGABOGG got snapped up double-quick by Century Media, parlaying the “weirdness” of their name and logo (self-described as “the Nike swoosh of death metal” by gurgler Devin Swank) into what seems to be the next “it” band in metal. ‘Black Market Vasectomy’ kicks things off, or tries to, at least. I shouldn’t enjoy Cody Davidson’s coffee can drums, but for some reason I am, but that could be because they’re mixed so far to the front that the guitars sound like they’re in a room down the hall somewhere, likely jerking […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Eyes – Congratulations

‘Generation L’ swings like anvils suspended on chains one moment, drops them onto your facebone the next. No easy ride up the incline on this rollercoaster, just a yank up and plummet down over and over again of which SWARM OF THE LOTUS and FISTULA would be proud. EYES has always had a pocketful of noise rock influence, and it jiggers and jerks in ‘IT’S HAPPENING’, while ‘Congratulations!’ is a speedster anthem ala ZEKE, but with grooves like XYSMA’s post-grind output or KRUGER. Sure, second paragraph and already we’ve mentioned five bands EYES brings to mind, but this should speak […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Bizarrekult – Den Tapte Krigen

It’s good to be right once in a while. Wasting no time, ‘Du Lovet Meg’ (‘You Promised Me’) moves forward confidently, blast beats and treble-based riffing engaged, yet just as assured drops into a near-BLACKFIELD / GREEN CARNATION dream of ether, combining both aspects throughout, and it’s clear the nearly two years between this album and Vi Overlevde have served BIZARREKULT extremely well. ‘Den Tapte Krigen’ (‘The Lost War’) canters at a mid-pace for the most part, not as obviously spacious as what’s come before, elements of German avant-gardists PORTA NIGRA being conjured, ‘Hvis Jeg Bare Kunne…’ (‘If I Could […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Deiquisitor – Apotheosis

Danish death vendors DEIQUISITOR have been at it for a decade now, generating reliable, convoluted albums and EPs, Apotheosis being the fourth of the former. With the self-titled debut of 2016 (drool and gnash your teeth at ‘Elongated Crystal Skull’ for reference), it seemed there was something just strange enough about the trio’s take on death metal to bear keeping an eye on, and thus far no disappointments. Jointly released by Extremely Rotten Productions and Night Shroud Records, Apotheosis takes aim with ‘Humanoid’, a distended, twisting riff straight out of Stockholm circa 1989 hits its mark, drummer Henrik B.C. seemingly […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Satanic Warmaster – Aamongandr

Since 2005 (and a few albums deep into its recorded history already), Finland’s SATANIC WARMASTER has been bathed in the blood of the sole and ridiculously prolific Werwolf, for better or worse. Guest musicians involved or not, SW’s failures and triumphs rest and resound in one man. With a discography as varied and plentiful as this, it’s unwise to assume everything measures up to the quality of the best or should be down to the level of the triteness of the worst. Aamongandr is SATANIC WARMASTER’s first full-length in 8 years, though, so one hopes Werwolf and the chosen session […]

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