Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

lord randall

Album Reviews

Album Review: Seven Planets – Explorer

After over a quarter-century playing together in various incarnations, there’s no quarter given for half-assing a performance (live or on record), or not playing to the strengths of both yourself and your bandmates. Now, three albums deep into the space inhabited by SEVEN PLANETS, we have Explorer, so let’s just climb aboard and hope this ship takes us somewhere worth the trip. Opener ‘Vanguard’ sports a LEAF HOUND groove, albeit a bit more funky than London’s highest ever went. Instrumental rock bears a curse, in that there’s no room for “dead air”, or just wandering aimlessly, and it never feels […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Blood Spore – Fungal Warfare Upon All Life

I always get a little snarky when a band’s first release for a label is also their demo/album that originally came out anywhere from a month to years prior. I get the feeling the band’s got new material in the bag or “almost ready”, but one party or another wanted to buy some time for whatever reason. ‘Hostile Fruiting Bodies’ blooms and looms large, towering, crimson-bathed riffs and near-sludge pacing in parts, gnarled OBITUARY-an gore (think Cause Of Death) in others, the section from 1:16-1:33 being particularly Cro-Magnon in its abuse. Slow, and with a tinge of sable-hued psychedelia, I […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Nick Giannakos – The Alchemist

Ohio’s WRETCH fired off a few rounds in the mid-late ‘80s, never really rising above the demo/rehearsal stage. After – sort of – reuniting in the early ‘00s, it seems founding guitarist Nick Giannakos and longstanding drummer Jeff Curenton have hit their stride, adding new blood and crafting some fairly solid power/thrash over the past few years in the process. This isn’t a WRETCH review, though, but backgrounds can be important when it comes to instrumental albums, The Alchemist, in this case. Released under the moniker NICK GIANNAKOS And Alchemy, this debut is clearly meant to highlight the WRETCH gunslinger’s […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Kilter – Axiom

In the interest of full disclosure, let’s be clear. I know as much about the inner workings of jazz as you do about what I had for breakfast, and, by and large, I feel that it’s a joke I’ll never get the punchline of. It’s math masquerading (mathsquerading?) as music, and I never had a head for numbers, so… On the other hand, what this does do is free me up to enjoy – or not – the style on a purely visceral/emotional level. Either it speaks to me, or it doesn’t, and there’s literally zero historical context from which […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: AngelBlast – Rotting Paradise

A word on ANGELBLAST. Well, not much more than “a word”, as the entity has only just been shat forth from creation’s uterus, and all we really know is that it features in its ranks members of EXCRUCIATE and DARKENED. No surprise, then, that what’s on offer is death metal. Because the world needs another death metal band like it needs another hole in the head. To its credit, though, the title track of Rotting Paradise cranks up with a seconds-long snare roll, then gets down to the skullcrush. Subterfuge melodies writhe beneath the surface of passionately-delivered death reminiscent of […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: The Wraith – Gloom Ballet

With its longest song just a shade over the 4-minute mark, THE WRAITH’s debut full-length reveals the quartet as a band that doesn’t waste time with pleasantries or overlong introductions. First impressions are everything these days, and ‘Ballad Of Aeon’ rocks with the fervor of early LORDS OF THE NEW CHURCH, yet the hack ‘n’ slash guitars of late ‘80s Hussey/Hinkler MISSION UK, bands that sound about as disparate as two could within their chosen subgenre. It works here, though, a sign of good things to come, we hope. ‘Prevail’ falters in the verses, a bit too akin to the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Blackqueen – The Destructive Cycle

Seattle’s BLACKQUEEN returns with its all-important Album Number Three here, summarily getting down to the business of ‘The Destructive Cycle’, sludge reminiscent of the much-missed RABIES CASTE in moments, the angular slash ‘n’ burn of early QUICKSAND in others. Surprisingly, most of all, is that this instrumental introduction didn’t bore the ever-loving crap out of me as the majority of such things are wont to do. ‘Feed The Worm’ is the antithesis of the opener, staccato riff attack and a (possibly subconscious) nod to the heshers in the triumphant 0:29-0:44 section, all anchored by a rhythm section reminiscent of CRETIN […]

Interviews

Interview: WINTERFYLLETH

After five atmosphere-charged black metal albums – and one acoustic release -, Manchester’s WINTERFYLLETH took to the stage at Bloodstock to celebrate not only the first festival to give the band a headlining show, but the first decade of its existence. The Siege Of Mercia is volatile, enthralling, and triumphant, a true sonic (and visual) representation of a band at its peak. Lord Randall recently sat down to talk to bassist Nick Wallwork about the live set, the band’s most recent studio album, The Hallowing Of Heirdom, and where the quintet are headed from here… THE FATHERS OF ALBIONInterview with […]

Album Reviews

ALBUM REVIEW: DEATH WOLF – IV: Come The Dark

After leaving behind its obvious MISFITS/SAMHAIN tribute work as DEVILS WHOREHOUSE and rechristening itself DEATH WOLF in 2011, the band got down to the business of – while maybe not entirely turning its back on its initial sound – creating its own persona, which has worked to varying degrees of success over the last three albums. Now, roughly five years after III: Ostergotland, DEATH WOLF leaves behind Century Media, returning Blooddawn Productions to its original home under the Regain Records banner. ‘He Who Hates’ kicks things off, and I do mean kicks, hard-charging and menacing, easily the best opener on […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Municipal Waste – The Last Rager

I’m not about to sit here and tell you I’ve been a fan of, well, anything Tony Ferrera and his band of self-styled hard-partying miscreants has done under the banner of MONOLITHIC…erm, sorry…MUNICIPAL WASTE. To be honest, the whole idea kinda rubs me up the wrong way. Sure, EXODUS had its moments of fun for fun’s sake in the likes of ‘Toxic Waltz’, and don’t even get me started on the never-deserved-to-be-in-the-Big-Four-anyway ANTHRAX, but at least occasionally they’d kick out some decent jams to make up the difference. Not so with these guys, and I’m not really sure how, nearly […]

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