Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

lord randall

Album Reviews

Album Review: Darkthrone – Astral Fortress

Anyone who’s read my drivel for any length of time knows the importance I place on a band’s third album. Well, DARKTHRONE is at its 20th, so if they haven’t figured out what they are by now, there’s no point in bothering. And I suppose that’s why it pained me so much that 2021’s Eternal Hails……, the band’s self-proclaimed love letter to doom and prog, was such a disappointment. Now, off to strap on our skates and travel to the Astral Fortress. ‘Caravan Of Broken Ghosts’ begins interestingly enough, building in a way that brings anticipation. Never straying too far […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: AAWKS – (((((Heavy On The Cosmic)))))

On the heels of an EP shortly after formation, Ontario’s AAWKS hunkered down to craft a masterpiece. An album for the ages. That one shining record that glows/glowers upon all beneath it. And lo, (((((Heavy On The Cosmic))))) was born, but the gods did not smile upon our champions, nay, nay! Cassettes are well and good, but what the public – well, at least what one Discogs member – was clamoring for was vinyl. Thusly, and at long last… Hazed right out the gate, ‘Beyond The Sun’ clearly takes a tab from the early KYUSS, languid, lysergic and loving it. […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Daeva – Through Sheer Will And Black Magic

As much slavish devotion to epic doom as I have, the last CRYPT SERMON really fell flat on my ears, so the news that 3/5 of that band was releasing a black/thrash album as DAEVA with a different vocalist at least perked up this ol’ dog’s ears. This could be stellar or abysmally bad, and with the PR sheet mentioning BATHORY, VOIVOD and DARK ANGEL…well, you see what I mean. When your album’s just a goat’s hair over 30 minutes long spending 2 of them in an intro is from the start an issue, nevermind that ‘Intro (Emanations)’ doesn’t give […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Hierophant – Death Siege

A handful of albums over a dozen years of recorded history is nothing so scoff at for any band. And when said band – in this case HIEROPHANT – has the gumption to cover a band as staunch and without compromise as BOLT THROWER, one can only assume that band fancies itself as dedicated. Anyone who knows me knows I’m not a fan of intro tracks whatsoever, but ‘Mortem Aeternam’ is less an intro than a barrage of sonic violence assaulting your ears, all instruments and voices caterwauling, haranguing, defiling and dismembering into ‘Seeds Of Vengeance’. More Metal ™ than […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: R.A.M.B.O. – Defy Extinction

I remember first hearing the name R.A.M.B.O. from a friend of the band while hanging out in Philadelphia in the mid-‘00s. What? Costumes at shows? Political lyrics? Sorry, if you need me I’ll be here in my utterly original EMPEROR shirt and equally individualistic corpse paint, thanks. Then I listened. Wall Of Death The System sold me, elements of SACRILEGE demos, a smattering of AGNOSTIC FRONT/SOIA and even a dash of MENTORS when it came to the sense of skewed humor reminding that there are things to be taken with a dead seriousness as well as to be mocked because […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Coffin Torture – Blennoid

From the unexpected environs of South Carolina, land of Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head and a multitude of other lures for lovers of sun and beaches, Thorfinn and Blind Sampson return with their second full-length under the COFFIN TORTURE moniker, hoping to disgust our eardrums with Blennoid. ‘Ükhsen Uul’ begins this self-described “death sludge” effort with gooey riffs and a near industrial clang ‘n’ clamor to the rhythm section, but the whole affair seems processed, effects-ridden, and with neither the rabid ferocity of death nor the crawl through the sewer-swamp of sludge. While I’m sure the elongated intro to ‘Budo’ was […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Caustic Casanova – Glass Enclosed Nerve Center

CAUSTIC CASANOVA’s decision to augment the long-standing trio by adding Jake Kimberly on guitars bears fruit from the start, opener ‘Anubis Rex’ robust and invigorating/-ed, kicking off with some hybrid of spaghetti western, cock rock and surf, a dual-string attack clearly suiting the band. Add to this the trident-pronged vocals, and the D.C. act arsenal’s chock-full o’ ingredients that should guarantee success. But can they put their tools to good use over the course of Glass Enclosed Nerve Center without wandering in the process? If ‘Lodestar’ is any indication, yes, and since the band’s always had rather an “everything up […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Queensrÿche – Digital Noise Alliance

No sense in lying to you or to myself. It hurts when a band that meant so much in your younger years seems to have completely turned tail and run on the sound that undeniably both made them a household name in the cottage industry of metal but endeared them to yourself and othersin the process. For me, one of “those” bands was QUEENSRŸCHE. And I couldn’t care less about the legal battles, all of that, so if you want to rehash something that’s been decided (at least by the courts) long ago, might as well go somewhere else. I’d […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: I AM – Eternal Steel

Begun by vocalist Brandon Hileman in his 20th year, Texans I AM solidified their lineup in 2017, and have since put out a couple albums sparking a level of interest completely relative to the listener’s enjoyment of groove metal. While the Lone Star State has a plethora of fantastic metal bands, I’ll stand on Phil Anselmo’s ego and swear that PANTERA was never one of them. Yet still, their influence looms large, and thus we arrive at Eternal Steel, I AM’s third. ‘The Primal Wave’ is the grabbing of low hanging fruit from an orchard of already rotten fruit, Hileman’s […]

Interviews

Interview: BONGBONGBEERWIZARDS

For the past five-odd (emphasis on odd) years, Germany’s BONGBONGBEERWIZARDS have been making use of ancient sonic alchemical techniques to conjure riffs moving at the speed of slow, drone hymns and cautionary tales. Lord Randall takes the magic carpet ride to the Ampire… STRAIGHT OUTTA DORTMUNDInterview with Bong Travolta in the human form of Jan S. [Guitars/Synth/Saxophone]Interview by Lord Randall Rebel Extravaganza: When the band first began, did you already have a solid idea of what you wanted the sound to be, or would you say it’s naturally developed over time? Bong Travolta: After changing the lineup back in 2019, […]

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