Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

lord randall

Album Reviews

Album Review: Hands Of Goro – Hands Of Goro

‘Prince Of Shokan’ kicks off (and out) the jams on HANDS OF GORO’s self-titled debut here, replete with ‘70s rawk riff glory and pulsing rhythms. These three ain’t no spring chickens when it comes to bringing this sort of thing to the party, members of neo-classic metallers SLOUGH FEG, doomhounds SPIRIT ADRIFT and blackened NITE comprising the crew here. “Metal” is the operative word here, from the fast-paced ‘Demonizer’ to ‘Uncanny’ with its NWOBHM gallop (SAXON, Di’Anno-era IRON MAIDEN). The psyche-progrre-delic freakout of ‘21st Century Plague’ manages to slam some proto-punk into the mix as well. Think THE SWEET’s ‘Ballroom […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Nomura – The Silent Whisper [EP]

Right out the gate I’ve gotta worry about a djent band. Sorry, I’ve heard more than enough pissing and moaning about how I “just don’t get it”, but you know what? If releases like The Silent Whisper keep flatulating across my desk, I’m glad. NOMURA seems to revel in the masturbatory style of TESSERACT and MESHUGGAH, with no discernable tunes anywhere to be found amid the spend drying on the tissues and socks that must surely litter their space after “practice”. ‘Embrace The String’ and ‘Natural Revange’ jerk and jitter past like the band’s scared a song might actually catch […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: White Dog – Double Dog Dare

My review of WHITE DOG’s self-titled 2020 debut was, how shall we say, less than kind. I still stand by that impression, but when Double Dog Dare came across my desk, I’ll also confess to being curious at how the band had aged in the little over three years since. With a revamped lineup, including a new vocalist and added – you guessed it – keyboardist, there’s hope, right? A compact little FOGHAT-styled shuffle leads us into ‘Holy Smokes’, lead runs and vocal harmonies aplenty, the rhythm section keeping things tight but buoyant. Quite frankly, I’m not sure who’s got […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Dragonforce – Warp Speed Warriors

‘Astro Warrior Anthem’ begins satisfyingly enough, Marc Hudson seeming for all the world like a rather bored Klaus Meine, but it all goes to pot less than a minute in when the noodle factory opens for business, Li and Totman clocking in for some true tweedly-dee runs that should be jaw-dropping but don’t even sound as if they were created by humans. Sure, I get it, “fastest band in the world”, blah blah blah. But there’s exactly zero emotion conjured in the entire song, a carbon copy of 95% of what DRAGONFORCE has done up until now. ‘Power Of The […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Messiah – Christus Hypercubus

MESSIAH was one of the first metal bands to cross my hears from Switzerland (yes, yes, the mighty CORONER, a little-known band named HELLHAMMER that turned into an even lesser-known band called CELTIC FROST, we know). There was always something quirkily special about MESSIAH, though. From the low-slung proto-doom/death of ‘Space Invaders’, to the utterly bonkers yet melodic ‘The Dentist’ of the debut to the complete about-face that was Extreme Cold Weather and that curious polar bear on the cover, MESSIAH was just different. Fast forward to 2024, the regrettable loss of vocalist Andy Kaina certainly still haunting after the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Ihsahn – Ihsahn

I mean, really, in 2024, what point is there in backstory? If you’re into metal/extreme music whatsoever, you’re at the very least aware of IHSAHN, and his history. If not, a quick search will provide such, but let’s focus, as I’m sure he would desire, on the music/art, which is why we’re discussing him at all. For IHSAHN’s eighth – though all of his releases have an element of the forward-thinking, and he has always been seen as the most “experimentally-minded” member of EMPEROR, for better or worse – he’s chosen to pull out all stops and present the project […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: DIPYGUS – Dipygus

While death metal was born swathed in gore (I mean, it is death metal, right?), since the mid-‘80s the genre has morphed into subgenre after sub-subgenre after sub-subgenre, resulting in…well, if we’re going to take brutal death, goregrind, and gore metal as examples…does anything truly shock and appall anymore? When’s the last time a song’s lyrics truly creeped you out? When’s the last time those lyrics joined with the music to create something utterly terrifying? Returns DIPYGUS with its third full-length, ready to spew blood, choler and phlegm in a fountain of yellow bile ‘cross us all, ‘Perverse Termination (Bulb […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Black Absinthe – On Earth Or In Hell

BLACK ABSINTHE was born a little over a decade ago, yet On Earth Or In Hell is only its second full-length. While not necessarily a cause for concern, this will be a sure test of the sophomore slump most bands experience on their second release. ‘Dead Queen’ begins with a snappy riff/rhythm combo, but it seems a bit overproduced for the heavy metal/punk hybrid the trio is shooting for. Still and all, Cerre’s vocals are like a less hammered Lemmy, the mix is full, and none of the instruments are muscling the others out of the way, so let’s call […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Obsidian Tongue – The Stone Heart [EP]

OBSIDIAN TONGUE weaves into ‘The Stone Heart’, and we, standing in a clearing while gazing toward the shimmering line of grey rain that falls steady, sure on the border with the surrounding forest. The storm shifts, turns inward, closer, then enters us, wreaking havoc. Suspended yet descending slowly, ‘Winter Child’ is ache and melancholia, yet a stark look at the flesh and eyes that gaze back at one from the mirror of truth – unfoolable and unforgiving. Amid the droning vocal harmonies and harsh howl, we bow, scrawling our destiny on frozen ground. Instrumental ‘Bear At The Tree Of Light’ […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Big Scenic Nowhere – The Waydown

While I remember digging BIG SCENIC NOWHERE’s initial two EPs, Dying On The Mountain and especially 2020’s more prog-tinged Lavender Blues, I’ll admit to letting 2020 debut LP Vision Beyond Horizon and The Long Morrow of the following year slip under my radar, always “intending to” go back and investigate what the foursome could do within the space of an album. I never did, though, so no better time than now to check in. Opener and title track, ‘The Waydown’ doesn’t so much arrive as materialize before closed eyes and open ears, the vocal harmonies and flowing, yet purposeful momentum […]

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