Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

lord randall

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. […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Deadwood – Rituals Of A Dying Light [EP]

Canadian deathcore unit DEADWOOD return to the EP format three years after 2023’s Inhuman with Rituals Of A Dying Light. Once you get past the ridiculous guitar noodling at the start, ‘Tales Of Massacre’ obliterates, striding forward, heavy-footed and confident. ‘Heretic’ attacks from a more overtly death metal angle but isn’t lacking in the frequent time changes and vocal squeals/bellows that call deathcore home. ‘Thirst For Blood’ sticks mainly to the path the foursome has walked thus far, but it’s with closer ‘Echoes Of The Fallen’ that DEADWOOD begins to really stretch itself in a way it hasn’t before. Doom-paced, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Ligation – After Gods

LIGATION, formed by DARK BUDDHA RISING alumnus MN and MS of enthralling funeral doom entity PROFETUS, and now joined by TI of brutal death crew PUS, arrives with its full-length debut, After Gods. A shagged-out doom groove strides in in the form of the title track, ghosts of DESULTORY (when they mattered) and GOREFEST’s Mindloss flitting around the corners. There’s already something unhinged at work here, be forewarned, slobbering death metal and chaos-reigning noise elements making an appearance, and we’re less than three minutes in. ‘Turmoil In Everest’ TI’s bass is robust in the same way as the slathering creature […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Profane Elegy – Herezjarcha

When All Is Nothing blended the treble-heavy rush of black metal’s second wave with understandable yet snarling exhortations, a flirtation with the unpredictable, and a sense of economy that suited the duo that made up PROFANE ELEGY well. Now, 2 ½ years later, Mikael L. [vocals] and instrumentalist J. Gulick have taken a bassist and drummer into the fold and delivered unto us Herezjarcha. A word first, then on to the music. Yes, you honkbrayers, I’m fully aware that it’s 2026, and that bands are oft’ inclined to release singles from upcoming projects via streaming platforms. I question, though, the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Omnium Gatherum – May The Bridges We Burn Light The Way

Finland’s OMNIUM GATHERUM has never had it easy. Formed in 1996, during the time when the Gothenburg-born style of melodic death was really starting to stretch its legs and take confident steps original/current guitarist, Markus Vanhala, and co. were and have been fighting an uphill battle for recognition since the demo days. Sometimes great, sometimes good, but always deserving of a listen, the band enters the fray again in 2025 – just shy of the band’s 30th anniversary – with May The Bridges We Burn Light The Way. If you’re looking for the difference between “Intro” and “Instrumental” look no […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Architectural Genocide – Malignant Cognition

When you’ve got a sophomore album nearly six years in the making, and it’s shorter than Reign In Blood, one of two things has happened; either you’ve decided to shit something out super-quick just to keep the band name out there, or you’ve (hopefully) spent that time honing these songs to the point that they’re less “songs” than blades and boulders, both concertina wire-sharp and heavy as granite. Creepy-crawly “intro-not intro” ‘Precursor To Bloodshed’ sets the mood for Malignant Cognition, ARCHITECTURAL GENOCIDE ready to rumble like a bulldozer in the graveyard that is ‘Coercion Into Carnality’. Immensely guttural vocal spews […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Morbikon – Lost Within The Astral Crypts

Composed of members of bands as often intolerable as MUNICIPAL WASTE and UADA, yet also as underappreciated as GOATGOR and as forward-thinking as …AND OCEANS, MORBIKON either has a lot going for it or is an accident waiting to happen on its second, Lost Within The Astral Crypts. While 2022’s Ov Mournful Twilight was solid “enough” patch of sonic real estate , ’25 finds the lineup shifting, Dave “I’ve been in every band under the sun” Witte relinquishing his drum throne to Pierce Williams of the aforementioned UADA, Toby Swope being replaced by GOATGOR’s Blake Hibberd, lineup scattered hither and […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Pupil Slicer – Fleshwork

Cards on the table, I’m a complete dunderhead when it comes to mathematics. A rube. Anything over short division, and I am not only not to be trusted, but avoided like the plague. Hence, I despise “mathcore”, “math rock”, and the majority of jazz, simply because it’s too wonky and up its own arse to be bothered with. Grab your slide rules, kids, it’s time to rock the fuck out to some 29/16 time signatures! I’m looking at you, THE MARS VOLTA. And don’t even get me started on MESHUGGAH post-None. I hadn’t torn an album a new rectum in […]

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