Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

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Album Reviews

Album Review: Immolation – Acts Of God

Where does IMMOLATION rank in the list of American death metal bands? Right up at the top, I would say. They passed the likes of MORBID ANGEL and DEICIDE a long time ago…way more consistent. Compared to CANNIBAL CORPSE? Hmmm, that’s a tough one, because the CANNIBALS are masters of consistency themselves. But I give the nod to IMMOLATION because the music seems to have a bit more depth to it, and a special kind of darkness that IMMOLATION alone has mastered. Acts Of God continues in the style of the most recent albums, Atonement and Kingdom Of Conspiracy. The […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Pyreship – Light Is A Barrier

Finding a quality band that falls under the post-whatever (in this case -metal) tag is almost – if not more – rare than a current thrash band actually doing something interesting with the genre. Houston, Texas’ awfully-named PYRESHIP has a full-length and split with Louisiana sludge/prog crew FORMING THE VOID under its belt from a few years back, and now returns with Light Is A Barrier. An overlong spoken piece takes up the first minute of ‘Broken Spire’, but I guess the band figured they could spare it, what with 8+ minutes to fill on the opener. Once the vocals […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Darkness Everywhere – The Seventh Circle [EP]

Admittedly I’ve always dug both key variants of the Swedish death metal sound, those being Stockholm and Gothenburg. While the Stockholm sound was ripping, cavernous, gutted by the HM-2 pedal (Swedish Chainsaw, y’all!), the Gothenburg sound was inherently more melodic, generally faster, a distant cousin of the US thrash of its time. Oakland, California is nowhere near Gothenburg, though, so when DARKNESS EVERYWHERE’s debut EP landed on my desk, I had to investigate. As much as I despise intro tracks, ‘Apocalyptic Nightmares’ gets a pass due to its nod to my beloved doom, a simple pattern delivered over dual guitars […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Mystic Circle – Mystic Circle

MYSTIC CIRCLE has been plying their trade in the black/death market since the mid-‘90s, releasing a half-dozen albums in the decade between ’96-’06, but has as yet failed to make a noticeable impression of any sort, just always being “there”, one could say. Others have their thoughts, I’m sure, but I believe releasing three albums in as many years burnt whatever creativity the band had to cinders, resulting in the lackluster Bloody Path Of God in 2006, followed by the 15-year recording hiatus that ended with last year’s Letters From The Devil EP. And now, a mere four months later, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Black Altar / Vulture Lord – Deathiah Manifesto

Given my current renaissance of affection for split releases over the past few months or so, Deathiah Manifesto looked interesting at the start, being a melding of Polish (now UK) blackguards BLACK ALTAR and Norway’s equally profane VULTURE LORD. The styles of blackness from both countries are identifiable almost at first listen, yet I’ve found them often in at least aesthetic camaraderie, giving me hope that the few moments to come won’t be wasted. With its last full-length arriving in 2008 and only three other splits and an EP to show for the past decade, BLACK ALTAR has more to […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Cynic – Ascension Codes

Conceived as a mind-journey – as, if we’re being honest, most CYNIC has been – pollen blown from Olias Of Sunhillow / Song Of Seven JON ANDERSON is evident from ‘Mu-54*’ and ‘The Winged Ones’, which is much pleasing to these ears, oft’ jaded and haggard from guitars with gain cranked to 11 and tempos that have more in common with arcane ritual than art given time to let the music breathe. ‘Elements And Their Inhabitants’ is positively otherworldly, and it’s here that newfound drummer Matt Lynch first slips into his role, as comfortable as an ivory finger into a […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Sataray – Blood Trine Moon [EP]

Though active and releasing music under SATARAY for a bit over 10 years, this is my first listen to she of Olympia, Washington, lately also of funerary doom outfit VOUNA, a recent and impressive addition to whatever “Cascadian metal” is identifying itself as these days. At any rate, barring a single and a split release with Zania Morgan, the Blood Trine Moon EP is the one-woman project’s first output since the 2019 Nocturnum debut full-length. And thus… ‘Astara’ flows gentle at its start and keeps interest even though a good bit of this ambient sort of work reveals itself to […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Phrenelith – Chimaera

Copenhagen’s PHRENELITH kicked up grave dirt fairly consistently from its initial 2015 demo until the Ornamented Dead Eyes EP from 2018, and then…nothing. While full length debut Desolate Endscape was solid as fuck, the band’s disappearance seemed as if it had failed to strike while the iron was hot, as it were. And now comes Chimaera, drawing heavily (and possibly not so strangely) on Greek myth. I’ll admit I was a bit surprised to see the entire 2017 Chimaerian Offspring EP show up here, especially since it was released before the album of that same year, but I’ve often thought […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Running Wild – Blood On Blood

With Cap’n Rock ‘n’ Rolf at the helm, RUNNING WILD seems to have learned how to stay in their proper sea lane. Stick to what you know, experiment just a little bit and you can stay the course and avoid any mutiny with the crew. Blood On Blood is another pure RUNNING WILD record that generally sticks with the trademark style of MAIDEN-like gallops, LIZZY-style twin guitar harmonies, big choruses and that kind of Celtic/folkish feel that typifies pirate metal. The title track has a cheerful sound to the guitar melodies, which is another RUNNING WILD characteristic. In contrast, ‘Wings […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Nathr / Ordo Cultum Serpentis – Shadows Crawl

Of NATHR, bell-toll, windswept soundscape beckons, chiming, an almost harpsichord tone to herald ‘The Burial’. Lie back on the satin, fold arms, and let the tide take you. Six minutes elapse before the guitar becomes consciously noticeable, embroidered and woven slow, steady, patient and undeniable as the Norns, keys flipping tumblers in the lock as the gate to eternal repose opens. At 10:24, when the lid closes and the soil begins to pile, though resigned and longing, comes hysteria, a panicked, futile clawing. Futile, as the darkness takes on weight, takes you in. Black liturgy here, and no benevolent forced […]

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