Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Metal Blade

Album Reviews

Album Review: DÅÅTH – The Deceivers

DÅÅTH returns after a smattering of 2023 singles, 14 years after their self-titled album left nary a blip on most folks’ radar with The Deceivers. That the album features one original member must be noted, as well as that the quintet has expanded, now including a third guitarist, as well as longtime vocalist Sean Zatorsky. So let’s see what fruits are born of sonic upheaval… ‘No Rest No End’ began melodically, until suddenly a wash of discombobulating keys broke any sense of fluidity. Thankfully, this was short-lived, a relatively catchy riff pattern devolving into groove metal grunt-fest, and then – […]

Music News

RIVERS OF NIHIL Drops ‘Criminals’ Video/Single; Chaos & Carnage Tour Begins This Week

Reading, Pennsylvania-based progressive death metallers RIVERS OF NIHIL are pleased to unleash their brand new single, ‘Criminals’. The latest track serves as a teaser for the band’s upcoming new full-length. Comments vocalist/bassist Adam Biggs, “Our newest single, ‘Criminals’, is by far one of the most aggressive tracks we’ve released in quite some time and displays the power of the new lineup at a full 10 out of 10. Lyrically, the song is a meditation on the nature of crime, punishment, and the delicate balance of power therein. So, show up for the shredding, stay for the contemplation of truth and […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Six Feet Under – Killing For Revenge

Aside from a wheezing, heart attack inducing “Is this Geritol in my bongwater” run partway up Half-Ass Mountain with Undead (2012) and Unborn (2013), Ol’ Chrissy’s been faltering at best, flatlining at worst since 1995’s Haunted. Chris Barnes had no choice but to get Jack Owen on board, as roping/duping another member of the O.G. CANNIBAL CORPSE lineup was the only way SIX FEET UNDER could retain any level of credibility in death metal. And so, the hopeful did hope. And lo, did Nightmares Of The Decomposed flop harder than Nicolas Cage with T__ W_____ M__. We shouldn’t have been […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Vulture – Sentinels

Holding the flag high for German thrash we have VULTURE, who have emerged as solid journeymen in their chosen field. The ’80s thrash revival hasn’t quite hit the same level of success as the recent comeback of old school death metal…can VULTURE turn the tide? I don’t know if Sentinels will be the record to do it. It’s a fun record combining straight EXODUS worship with heaping helpings of yelping Kraut-thrash, but it’s no threat to join the company of thrash immortals. The yippy vocals (like Zetro Sousa trying to do early Schmier from DESTRUCTION) are overdone and sometimes cringeable. […]

Music News

Blaze of Perdition: Polish Black Metal Outfit Releases ‘Przez rany’ Video / Single

Upharsin Nears April 19th Release On Metal Blade Records Watch BLAZE OF PERDITION’s ‘Przez Rany’ video ‘Przez Rany’ is the harrowing new single from long-running outfit BLAZE OF PERDITION. Having existed at the forefront of the Polish black metal movement, the band returns in 2024 with their sixth full-length, Upharsin, set for release on April 19th via Metal Blade Records. A step back from the somewhat unusual direction the band followed on their previous offering — 2020’s The Harrowing Of Hearts — Upharsin takes on a dark and pessimistic tone reflected by its appropriately oppressive music. Haunting and melancholic melodies […]

Music News

CATTLE DECAPITATION To Co-Headline Chaos & Carnage 2024 With Carnifex; Tickets On Sale Now

West Coast deathgrind icons CATTLE DECAPITATION will co-headline this year’s edition of the Chaos & Carnage Tour alongside Carnifex. The journey runs from April 30th through May 26th with additional support provided by the band’s Metal Blade labelmates, Rivers Of Nihil and The Zenith Passage, as well as Humanity’s Last Breath, Vitriol, and Face Yourself. Comments CATTLE DECAPITATION’s Travis Ryan, “Excited to be back out on the road in the good ol’ US of A, this time co-headlining the Chaos & Carnage Tour with our hometown homies Carnifex along with a slew of great bands making this one hell of […]

Music News

Týr Announces Battle Ballads North American Headlining Tour 2024

Faroe Islands-based folk metal collective TÝR will return to North American stages next Spring. The Battle Ballads headlining tour, named in honor of their upcoming new full-length of the same name, begins March 28th in Baltimore, Maryland and makes its way through over two dozen cities, coming to a close on April 26th in Greensboro, North Carolina. Support will be provided by Trollfest, Æther Realm, and The Dread Crew Of Oddwood. The tour marks TÝR’s first North American run since 2019. Comments the band, “It is with great joy that we announce our return to the US and Canada. It’s […]

Music News

GOST To Release Prophecy Full-Length March 8th, 2024 Via Metal Blade Records; New Video Now Playing + North American Tour Supporting Katatonia Underway

Slasherwave outfit and recent Metal Blade Records signees GOST will release the thundering thirteen-track full-length, Prophecy, on March 8th, 2024, revealing the record’s first video/single and preorders. GOST exists in the dark crack between black metal and the most shadowy end of electronic music. Since the release of the Radio Macabre EP at the start of 2013, and the remorseless digital nightmare of their Skull debut album six months later, Texas-based multi-instrumentalist, producer, and main-brain James Lollar has become an increasingly singular force in music. Far more aggressive and sinister than the synthwave he’s often grouped with, GOST is a […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Cirith Ungol – Dark Parade

Along with MANILLA ROAD, MANOWAR and BROCAS HELM, Ventura, California’s CIRITH UNGOL is one of the first bands that comes up (or should) in any discussion of American power/epic/heavy metal. With the passing of Mark Shelton of MANILLA ROAD any album released by the above becomes more important as not a teary-eyed trip through the “glory days”, but as confirmation of metal’s warrior spirit. After a triumphant return to record in 2020’s Forever Black, we join Dark Parade, the band’s sixth studio album. ‘Velocity (S.E.P.)’ bursts from shattered gates, a twin guitar attack and vocalist Tim Baker’s “Stretch your soul […]

Music News

CIRITH UNGOL: Cult Heavy Metal Icons Unveil ‘Looking Glass’ Single; Dark Parade Full-Length Nears Release On Metal Blade Records

Cult heavy metal icons CIRITH UNGOL today unveil their latest single, ‘Looking Glass’, with an accompanying lyric video. The monolithic new track comes by way of the band’s impending sixth full-length, Dark Parade, set for release on October 20th via Metal Blade Records. Few bands in the history of the heavy metal underground have a story as remarkable, improbable, or uplifting as that of CIRITH UNGOL. Formed in Ventura, California in the early 1970s, rather than passively channeling their influences, the band was driven to forge an altogether heavier, darker, more apocalyptic sound the world had never experienced before. It […]

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