Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

pure steel records

Album Reviews

Album Review: Lower 13 – Embrace The Unknown

LOWER 13 is a trio hailing from Cleveland, OH, an area I’ve always much more associated with the hardcore of RINGWORM, SIX FEET DEEP, or the doom of FRAYLE, the dirty-dirty sludge of FISTULA, RUE and their incestuous spawn. Which means I’m intrigued at what sort of traditional metal comes from the land of the burning river, so here goes. The band’s fourth, Embrace The Unknown, stumbles from the start, the title track a jumbled mish-mash of “alright, I guess, if you like that sort of thing” to outright bad ideas firing off in all directions, as if, lacking anything […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Invictus – Eden

Subdued and pastoral, the abbreviated intro is less a standard, bland “intro track” than an opening of a door, a passing through of a gate…that is until the rough ‘n’ ragged guitar tone of ‘The Hammer’ crashes down, frayed around the edges, and the better for it, reminiscent of the passion-over-proficiency so prevalent in the garage days of power/thrash. Not that the Bavarians aren’t skilled at their craft. Far from it, in fact, especially when the pace slows down ¾ of the way through to give the solo room to breath. After the Sacred Heart-era DIO influence of ‘Inside Your […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Mindless Sinner – Poltergeist

MINDLESS SINNER is a 5-piece, classic heavy metal outfit from Sweden, and they are bringing waves of catchy riffs and choruses in their newest album Poltergeist. This is their follow up to their 2015 comeback album The New Messiah. Poltergeist is a time capsule filled with leather, Vikings, stock explosion audio clips, dual guitars, and just a hint of cheese that made the speed/power metal of the ’80s so much fun, and so memorable. The voice work by Christer Göransson is definitely the highlight of the album for me. His voice reminds me of a mix between Bruce Dickinson and […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Conjuring Fate – Curse Of The Fallen

CONJURING FATE’s second starts at a deficit, which, after a 2014 EP, an album two years hence, and close to 15 years as a band does not a good impression make. After a lethargic, shiftless – and incredibly drawn-out, might I add – intro, though, ‘Burn The Witch’ springs from the gates, punchy riffs and driving rhythms carrying the vocals of Tommy Daly along, bloody, sweating and tearing its way into your earholes. ‘Voodoo Wrath’ is as energetic, ghosts of SAXON and DIAMOND HEAD, the Gibson/Horner guitar team pulling off tasty dual leads with a seeming effortlessness, but I keep […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Picture – Wings

PICTURE is a band that almost made it big in heavy metal. Like many other bands of the dawn of the metal age, they SHOULD have made it big. All the tools were there. It’s been 40 years since these Dutchmen first made their mark. Is there a place for PICTURE in 2019? You bet your sweet bippy there is. Wings has such a flavor of what made metal great in the early ’80s and that formula still works today. You’d have to be dead inside to not get a warm fuzzy feeling from this record. This is where classic […]