Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

lord randall

Album Reviews

Album Review: Immolation – Descent

I’ve intentionally shied away from reviewing certain bands over time, either due to a blatant dislike or an appreciation that bordered on the slavish, knowing that both would result in a bias leaning heavily on one side or the other. DRAGONFORCE lies on one end of that seesaw, IMMOLATION the opposite. As I suffered through the latest album of the former, I felt the Noo Yawk-based death metal stalwarts were deserving of the same, so let us begin the descent into…Descent… Imagine, for a moment, a pastoral scene; maybe something of John Bradley or Frederic Edwin Church. But only for […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Relic – Crown Of Flies [EP]

Comprising a few of Milwaukee’s best and darkest, RELIC’s Crown Of Flies debut explodes with ‘The Void Between The Gods’, a cavernous maw in which the entrails of HERESIARCH and ORDER FROM CHAOS writhe in unbridled ferocity. War metal missiles streak across the skies of ‘Filth Of Rebirth’, yet pummeled broadside with mid ‘00s death ordnance and, though ‘Scavenger’s Daughter’ may slow the pace overall somewhat, it lends the punishment extra heft. A surprisingly melodic solo near the end leads us into ‘Iron Sacrament’, which imagines a more scattershot MEMORIAM in league with recent BELPHEGOR to disastrous effect. While Crown […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Restless Spirit – Restless Spirit

RESTLESS SPIRIT came up old school, the way it should be done; dropping three EPs, tweaking and molding its sound so that by the time an album was even conceived, founding members Marc Morello [bass] and Paul Aloisio [vox, guitars] had at least a general idea of what they were going for. Can’t hurt that they’d known one another for practically their entire time on this rotting planet, so their musical language was inspired by decades of hailing favorites and mocking the “shitty” albums in each other’s collections. Enter drummer Jon Gusman, just in time for 2021’s Blood Of The […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Ignobleth – Manor Of Primitive Anticreation

Italy’s IGNOBLETH arrived with 2024’s Voidspawn Sacrifice EP, which was solid, but was also the sound of a band searching for itself. Heavy? Sure! Dark? As midnight. But memorable? Not so much, at least for these ears. And now the time has come to enter the Manor Of Primitive Anticreation. What lurketh beyond its gates, within its chambers? ‘Cults Of The Undead And Profane Necrolatry’ easily moves beyond a paltry “intro” track, an assurance that something is beginning that’s more than filler to the band. ‘Obelisk Of Deformity’ is gargantuan in riff and rhythm, cosmically malformed and unrelenting, collapsing us […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Who On Earth – It Takes The Village

New Jersey’s WHO ON EARTH returns with its sophomore shot, It Takes The Village. So strap in, babies, let’s see if the chicken’s finger-lickin’. Opener ‘Vigilance’ is a slab of fellow Garden Staters BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, complete with pinch harmonics, a biker bar anthem at birth, and I’m starting to see the Neil Fallon comparisons in the delivery of vocalist Coosh, but thus far not blatantly enough to be called a rip-off. ‘Any Other Way’ follows, gang background vocals adding a bit of ‘80s hard rock seasoning to the sauce, tasty dual leads garnishing the main dish, and leading us […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Tulus – Morbid Desires

The histories of many Scandinavian black metal scenes are incestuous; members shared, then each member branching off into a dozen other projects (sometimes simultaneously – I’m looking at you, Shatraug), often including members of yet other bands on different instruments than they’re known for. Yet none may be so convoluted and interwoven as Norway’s KHOLD and TULUS. While the latter was formed nearly a decade prior, when KHOLD was placed on hiatus in the mid-‘00s, what were members Sarke and Blodstrup to do except resurrect their original band? Bolstered since 2008 with the rumbling bass attack of Crowbel (who also […]

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 […]

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