Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

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Album Reviews

Album Review: Bizarrekult – Vi Overlevde

Sixteen years after its initial formation, it’s BIZARREKULT that I’m trusting to give me a break, however short, from this ambient / instrumental mode I’ve been in of late. Having never heard a note of its music, I’m putting a lot of faith in a band who’s only now releasing its debut full-length. And thus… Of course an intro, of course of the ambient sort I’d just mentioned trying to get a respite from, but still different enough from what I’ve been hearing that I’m not perturbed. Mercifully, ‘For 1000 Ar Siden’ arrives, the first thing leaping out of the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Culted – Nous

Cults are always problematic for me, largely because what – on the surface – seems a calling to “abandon false religions” and “leave society behind” almost invariably becomes religious in practice and elitist, societal, “hive mind” in psyche by the time the Kool-Aid starts getting passed around. Especially within the realms of our beloved “extreme” music, the term “cult” gets thrown around with the same abandon my generation used to declare things “radical”, “bitchin’”, or “hella”. But I’ll leave this for another day. CULTED has been at it a little over a decade now, and is one of the ever […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Fossilization – He Whose Name Was Long Forgotten [EP]

With a lineup composed of two members of Brazilian sludge/doom/death behemoth JUPITERIAN, namely vocalist/instrumentalist V., and P. on the drums. Now, I’ve recently gone on record with my opinion (aka The Whole Of The Law, Handed Down From The Mountain, Writ On Stone By Lightning) on members of one band forming a “side project” that basically mirrors the other (aka Thou Shalt Not), so I won’t bore you again – at least for now. Blessedly, FOSSILIZATION is noticeably different on its face than its members other effort, being more death than doom in overall scope, while still retaining a bit […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Harakiri For The Sky – Maere

Austrian duo HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY’s been at it for a decade as of 2021, and it shows. Over this time, Messrs. M.S. (Instruments) and J.J. (Vocals) crafted a space for themselves with their first three albums, moving – I feel – truly into something of their own with 2018’s Arson, a true benchmark, which could’ve seen the band take any one of a few divergent paths, and do so credibly, turning HFTS into something “other” than it was at its birthing. From the opening tones of ‘I, Pallbearer’, one can feel something of the cinematic, the first minute or […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Noisepoetnobody – Insanity Mirror

Unease. Trepidation. And yet, an anticipation that anything not only could but should happen in the catacombs created beneath the cassette manipulation of Insanity Mirror’s opening ‘Can’t See It Now’. NOISEPOETNOBODY has been at it for the far side of a decade and a half, creating what amounts to field recordings, manipulating sonic collages, and surrounding, well, ambience of all contrivances to craft what he does, as evidenced in ‘Bright Light Box’, where your ears – on the right system, and in the right headspace – can positively hear the shimmering form before you rotating in the air, waxing and […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Sahara – The Curse [EP]

Including Gabriel and Ivan (bass, drums respectively) of Argentinian stoner doom hybrid MEPHISTOFELES, SAHARA is, again, a trio, and…yet again…plays stoner doom. Seriously, things are so incestuous that a 2017 split paired the two. The sliver of hope here, is that the latter is the brainchild of founding guitarist/vocalist Martin Ludi, who must’ve heard something he liked, and drafted the rhythm section to signal his return after SAHARA’s 2019 “involuntary” disbandment. I’m going to go ahead and just say that, while Regain Records may be trying to “keep things cult” with this Limited Edition run of 150 cassettes, the cover […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Shadow People – Batom Rouge / Washing In Soap Opera

There are few terms that spark intrigue in my life, but you throw a mixture such as “sludge punk” my way, and my ears at least have to hear what the fuss is about. The “fuss”, in this case, is Louisiana’s SHADOW PEOPLE. Collecting its two EPS released last year, Batom Rouge / Washing In Soap Opera, ‘Six Weeks’ kicks off the proceedings, all fuzz, and drunken stumbling, the first minute coming off like what happens live when the band isn’t sure what song they were going to play next, and I love that feeling of spontaneity. Once it gets […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Stormtide – A Throne Of Hollow Fire

As much as I dread intros as a whole, ‘A Valley Of Ashes’ captivates, and – for the uninitiated – draws in, which is exactly a band wants to happen when inviting new ears. Right out the gate more symphonic in execution than I was expecting, ‘A Throne Of Hollow Fire’ blends keys, blessedly lower-register vocals and sections that grasp mightily for the epic. It does seem the mix is a bit “all over the place”, and the keys have a tendency to bury the guitars when the latter isn’t in solo mode, but when Richens and Bodnarr do get […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Reaper – The Atonality Of Flesh

As much I love some good ol’ (or new) caustic D-beat, for maximum enjoyment, the album needs to be short of length – we’re talking half-hour, tops – and long on attitude. Anything over that magical 30 minutes, and my attention quickly wanes, largely because the band’s begun to recycle its own ideas, and – due to the limitations of the style, maybe – it’s all just monotonous. Not so with Sweden’s REAPER, the duo returning with 2021’s The Atonality Of Flesh, if anything more fierce and, yes, varied than the Unholy Nordic Noise debut of 2019. MIDNIGHT is a […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Necropanther – In Depths We Sleep [EP]

As a songwriter (term used loosely…very, very loosely), that Colorado’s NECROPANTHER has managed to craft three albums that each stay within the framework of metal, but to embrace the melody inherent in the genre, and add shades to the colors of an established palette is impressive. It’s harder than you think, I assure you. Between albums, the quartet has this quirky habit of releasing EPs/Singles written entirely by a single member, with the remainder of the band contributing to the recording. Worry not, this is no KISS solo album papier-mâché pastiche of creativity, and this time around the honor/work fell […]

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