Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Purity Through Fire

Album Reviews

Album Review: Atronos – Erwachen

Enter in ATRONOS of Germany for its second full length, despite being together less than three years. Chalk at least some of that up to lyricist/vocalist Baptist and (now) skinbasher Valfor doing double duty in underrated EISENKULT. Still, ATRONOS be helmed by Henker, who is responsible for music, guitars and bass, so no laurels to rest upon here. ‘Was uns so schrecklich hasst’ begins, fully formed and hoisting the banner of pagan black metal proudly. Baptist’s delivery here is markedly different from his style with EISENKULT, more mid-late ‘90s, reminiscences of when the genre was stepping out of the shadow […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: ÚLFARR – Orlegsceaft

Ever get tired of the lyrics of your favorite black metal bands being written in some obscure “eldritch” dialect that with a short visit to Google Translate becomes known as modern Norse or High German? Do you see Chaucer as a false for using Middle English in Canterbury Tales? Feel like Cascadian black metal’s “alright if you like that sort of thing”, but long for something evoking your eldritch and Cumbrian ancestral home? Behealdan ÚLFARR! Birthed and guided by founder Dominus (aka Hfran), in 2011, ÚLFARR has unchained new material regularly since, yet Orlegsceaft be its first march into the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Eisenkult – Vulgäre, deutsche Hassmusik

Relative newcomer EISENKULT returns with Vulgäre, deutsche Hassmusik, the band’s lineup now including vocalist Tiwaz, also in longstanding (and more overtly medieval) ASENHEIM with drummer Valfor. ‘Annufung’ rings us to awareness, dark synth progressions and male chorale ushering in the German’s third. No pitiful, throwaway “intro” track this, a true harbinger of what’s to come, instantly drawing one into the world of the album. Surprisingly catchy, open and memorable from the start, ‘Der Teufel hat’s gesandt’ interlaces EISENKULT’s former 8-bit flirtations into a much bolder, more defiant blending to good effect, the tone of the guitar during the more blackened […]

Music News

Germany’s SLAGMARK to release special demo through PURITY THROUGH FIRE, Reveal First Track

Purity Through Fire sets October 30th as the international release date for a brand-new demo from Germany’s SLAGMARK, Radical Malice, on digipack CD format. It shall be sold at a special price of 6.66 Euros. Already this past April, SLAGMARK made their bolt-from-the-blue debut with the full-length Purging Sacred Soils via Purity Through Fire. Although a brand-new entity, SLAGMARK feature members of Sarkrista and Totenwache. As such, the brand play pure and proud BLACK METAL of the old ‘n’ cold variety. Trace elements of classic Finnish-style black metal ran rampant across Purging Sacred Soils – a cryogenic fire, steeped in […]

Music News

OCTOBER FALLS set release date for new PURITY THROUGH FIRE album, reveal first track

Purity Through Fire sets May 30th as the international release date for OCTOBER FALLS’ highly anticipated fifth album, A Fall Of An Epoch, on digipack CD and vinyl LP formats. A special diehard LP version with an engraved wooden slipcase will be available only through preorder. By now, OCTOBER FALLS should require little introduction. Formed in 2001 by Mikko Lehto and expanding to a full band lineup later on, OCTOBER FALLS have built up a considerable canon of unparalleled power and passion, their epic, folk-inflected black metal both reverential of tradition whilst blazing new trails into the beyond. Amidst their […]