Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Season Of Mist

Album Reviews

Album Review: Necrowretch – The Ones From Hell

This French band has been going at it for a good long stretch now, tossing out discs of evil death metal every few years to remind us they’re still around. They put me in a peculiar position, because they are definitely heavy enough, fast enough and diabolical enough, but they just don’t seem to make a big impression on me. The Ones From Hell is more of the same. These guys don’t have the aura of being bandwagon-jumpers, their commitment to black and death metal seems sincere. Yet it doesn’t register in any major way. They are influenced by classic […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Thy Catafalque – Naiv

In almost every conceivable case, when I read a line in a band’s PR sheet that says their current album is “their least metal ever”, the hackles on my neck go up and I fear the worst. But not with THY CATAFALQUE, because I know Tamas Katai is in the driver’s seat. He knows where he’s going, he knows how to drive and his grip on the wheel is firm. With THY CATAFALQUE, Katai has consistently proven he’s the rarest of birds in today’s music scene…an honest to God composer. There is something about the way this man writes music […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: THE OLD DEAD TREE – The End

Saying goodbye can be a difficult thing, but I believe goodbyes on good terms are much better than memories fading into nothingness. THE OLD DEAD TREE releases their final EP, The End, as a final chapter to celebrate a twenty plus year career, and it is definitely a satisfying but concise ending. This EP contains 5 tracks, all written around 1999, and all these tracks fit right in with their library of dark, beautiful and melancholic brand of progressive metal. The EP kicks off with ’Sorry’. A lite piano intro shifts into a very percussive riff, and then, breaks away […]

Album Reviews

ALBUM REVIEW: Gaahl’s Wyrd – GastiR – Ghosts Invited

There’s no doubt that Mr. Kristian Espedal better known as GAAHL is one of the most polarizing, if not the most polarizing figure on the black metal scene. And so he’s been for quite some time. Much of it seems to revolve around his sexuality, which I could give a rat’s ass about. It’s no more pertinent with Gaahl than it is with Rob Halford or the dude from TORCHE. But even beyond that, the guy’s been a real outsider since Day One and in a lot of ways he sums up the rebel aspect of black metal a lot […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Vltimas – Something Wicked Marches In

David Vincent has taken a lot of flak over the last couple of years for being in a country music band and also doing a knockoff of his former band MORBID ANGEL. Those criticisms may very well be justified, but I’ll tell you one thing…the guy is still a master death metal vocalist and one listen to this album will prove it. Vincent has always been one of the forefathers and leaders of the death metal genre. On Something Wicked Marches In, he’s at his best, growling away in a clear and comprehensible fashion and adding theatrical little touches like […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Rotting Christ – The Heretics

ROTTING CHRIST have existed in their own self-contained universe almost from the start of their career, which is now approaching the 30 year mark. They have never been interested in the typical trappings of what many perceive as extreme metal…they’ve never tried to be the fastest, the most brutal or, despite the obvious connotations of their name, the most blasphemous. They just create music on their own terms with no desire to meet any outside expectations.  The Heretics is for sure the most cinematic of all ROTTING CHRIST albums. A lot of this sounds like it could be the soundtrack […]

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