Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

lord randall

Album Reviews

Album Review: Palmar De Troya – III [EP]

Spain’s PALMAR DE TROYA returns with its third EP, the aptly titled III, and I’ll just bet you’re wondering what their first two EPs were called too, huh? Anyhow, let’s get to it, bruddas and sistas. ‘The Method’ revs its engines early, no-wave and snarling, LYDIA LUNCH’s ‘80s output blended with an almost THE LORDS OF THE NEW CHURCH post-punk ethic, guitars slicing ‘n’ dicing. Follows ‘She, The Destroyer’, coarse and uneven, but the band seems to be stepping out of the shadows of their influences here, certainly an outgrowth of time spent on the road in the past year […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Mordeo – Mordeo

Composed of members of sludge / doom AMAROK, groovy deathsters ABERRANCE and LEVEL, California’s MORDEO arrive with what purports to be its own take on sludge / crust in the form of its self-titled debut. ‘Bring Back The Fear’ collides with the eardrums instantly, a brief Cro-Magnon thundering giving way to what sounds like the collective asses of IRON MONKEY, VARUKERS and FISTULA getting an electrified cattle prod enema. There’s not a sense of urgency here; there’s a slathering, spitting, bloody, heaving mess that demands heed taken. Witness ‘Fight Your Friends’, a coiling, striking five-headed hydra on meth in sonic […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Mauled – When Your Eyes Are Shut [EP]

Indiana’s MAULED returns with When Your Eyes Are Shut. In its fourth year, we find the quintet still proudly ploughing the field of ‘00s deathcore, because (who fuckin’ knew?) there’s still an audience for it. A throwaway intro segues into ‘Mouthful Of Glass’, which is a flip-through of the book already scribbled to fuck and back by CHELSEA GRIN, ALL SHALL PERISH and JOB FOR A COWBOY. ‘TheLastThingYouSee’ brings a kneecap-shattering riff and an insanely robust sound, while the breakdown-breakdown-breakdown of ‘Unidentifiable Autopsy’ borders on tiresome. ‘For Me…It’s Always Like This’ is jarring in that best of ways; subtle, completely […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Multiwomb – Anatomy Of Gorelust

Just under a year after the aptly named Demo 2025, MULTIWOMB either pollutes the already cluttered brutal death metal sewer with even more aural fecal matter OR proves that you can, in fact, polish a turd into something presentable. Let’s study the Anatomy Of Gorelust, shall we? Wisely wishing “Fuck off and die” to tiresome intros, ‘Blood Climax’ goes for the money shot instantly, and – while I’d love a fuller drum sound when it comes to the toms (are those literal coffee cans, sir?), there’s something endearing here that recalls the early ‘00s basement and squat shows I went […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Witchcraft – A Sinner’s Child [EP]

After the few (and welcome) acoustic flourishes of last year’s Idag, I wasn’t sure what A Sinner’s Child would be for WITCHCRAFT or hold for my ears. As much as 2020’s Black Metal was mostly enjoyable, there were hints at a sonic claustrophobia that was also troubling, in the lack of dynamics from a band that – up to that point – had been known for infusing its music with both climactic highs and cathartic lows. Was Idag an attempt to cleanse the palate while still leaving the good memories of Black Metal lingering in our memory, and if so, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Teratoma – Longing Voracity

To say Purulent Manifestations of 2021 caused the death metal world to sit up and take notice is an understatement, TERATOMA’s initial independent crusher being released by no less than five labels in all imaginable formats within two years of its arrival. Now, just over four years later, we find the Berliners on Me Saco Un Ojo Records out of London, and ready to (hopefully) cause damage with Longing Voracity. I’m not a fan of needless, unrelated intros as a rule, but ‘Exordium’ transudes smoothly into the title track opener, neither out of place nor overstaying its welcome. There’s immediately […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Kallohonka – Lazer Blood

The older and more (if possible) curmudgeonly I get the less interest I have in PR one-sheets. To those who’ve never been on the receiving end of one of these, it’s therein that we’re told our lives up to hearing Band/Album In Question have been slightly to grossly unsatisfying if we’d just own up to the fact and begin to sing Band/Album In Questions praises far and wide. Rent skywriters. Get buck nekkid and call down fiyah from the tippy-top of the highest point in your area, be it the local Dollar Tree or the Statue Of Liberty herself upon […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows – Inexorable Opposites

JACK HARLON & THE DEAD CROWS’ fourth begins with the aptly titled ‘Moss’ the fuzzed (dare I say it, “mossy”) guitar phrasings slow but unceasing, creeping as its namesake. These are the open lands, dark and wide, and Tim Coutts-Smith’s passionate baritone harks to fellow countryman NICK CAVE but fronting a more rough-and-tumble WAYFARER. ‘Venomous’ strikes, quick and deadly before coiling to attack again, serpent-brained and hooded, while ‘Mt Macedon’ drags classic CRAZY HORSE into the spotlight, loose, loud as thunder, and more concerned about emotion than perfection of technique. There’s good bit of grunge ala PAW or Screaming Life […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Exhumed – Red Asphalt

Aside from the unbelievable chasm of time lapsed between Anatomy Is Destiny (2023) and 2011’s All Guts, No Glory, this is the longest we’ve had to wait for a new EXHUMED full-length of original material since its formation. Mind you, the band was far from on hiatus from To The Dead until now, but let’s take a ride down the Red Asphalt, and see if it’s worth the four-year wait. ‘Unsafe At Any Speed’ strips gears on its way to Mach 666, the perfect opening track for an album dealing with the seedy underbelly of America’s dark highways and bloody […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: GAVIAL – Thanks, I Hate It

‘Control’ eases us into GAVIAL’s second, Thanks, I Hate It, a loping, syncopated groove helmed by bassist Paul Kollascheck and Conrad Brod [drums] underpinning hazed out/phased out guitars and vocalist Benjamin Butter’s higher register timbre. Though it works more as an introduction to what’s coming, ‘Control’ does exactly what an opening track should by building anticipation, in this case for ‘Koru Mindset’. Unexpectedly energetic given the foursome’s comfort zone of mid-tempo explorations, ‘Koru Mindset’ brushes elbows with SHUDDER TO THINK, or possibly TAME IMPALA in a live setting, a bit of abrasion ala THE MARS VOLTA slashing through at times. […]

Older Posts