Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Tankcrimes

Album Reviews

Album Review: Deadform – Entrenched In Hell

DEADFORM’s self-titled EP didn’t so much “burst” onto the scene in 2022, unless speaking of a pustule oozing its infection out after the needle has pierced it to drain. Apparently the pus has returned, but instead of the surgical prick of a needle, the trio has decided to apply pressure until it ruptures of its own accord with Entrenched In Hell. What else would one expect from former members of STORMCROW, the mighty DYSTOPIA, and LAUDANUM? ‘Of Plagues’ quickly shifts from cave dweller drone to HELLBASTARD groove-laden crust, the rhythm section/dual vocalists battling to be heard over their own cacophony, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Necrot – Lifeless Birth

I remember really digging on NECROT’s sophomore full-length, Mortal, maybe partly because it was released in the throes of the pandemic, when the world was in literal spastic convulsions. Songs like ‘Stench Of Decay’ and ‘Malevolent Intentions’ were cut to the chase, no frills death demons that gave (at least these ears) an escape from the political haranguing and media talking heads. Lifeless Birth’s opener, ‘Cut The Cord’ slices and dices with exactly none of the precision of, say, CARCASS, but more a rusty cleaver hacking away, chunks of gore a’ flying into the speed-driven title track. Less chord-driven, just […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Ghoul – Noxious Concoctions [EP]

For well over 20 years GHOUL has been splattering minds and bodies with their truly twisted death/grind/thrash, so it’s no surprise Noxious Concoctions follows that same formula. With ‘The Eyes Of The Witch’, the foursome chugs along at a mid-paced but mangling rhythm ‘n’ riff-ride, while the title track ups the ante in both speed and fury, a bit of UNLEASHED in the guitar tone. ‘Shotgun Gulch’ returns to a confrontational stomp/swagger, fine for what it is but a bit too “throwaway” SIX FEET UNDER for my taste. However, the snarling ‘Ratlicker’ and FUNEROT cover that put the final shovelful […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Dead Heat – Endless Torment [EP]

Ahh, crossover. That glorious, sweat ‘n’ stale beer-drenched alliance unexpectedly created by streetwise hardcore kids who became better musicians and suburbanite headbangers who wanted to add a bit more groove to the rapid-fire riff onslaught of thrash. And when your first album ends with a CRUMBSUCKERS cover, it’s clear you know your history. So let’s see what ya got, DEAD HEAT. ‘Endless Torment’ begins with a keyboard intro that lasts about 40 seconds and is, therefore, 40 seconds too long, but rest assured that once this Oxnard, California four-piece gets going all is forgiven. A more outright thrash attack during […]

Music News

CONNOISSEUR: Oakland Beatdown Stoners Cough Up ‘Your Ass Is Grass’ Official Video; Split LP With TRAPPIST Out Now On Tankcrimes

Oakland’s most baked moshlords CONNOISSEUR have exhaled an official video for ‘Your Ass Is Grass’. The track is found on the band’s Cross Faded split LP with Los Angeles’ TRAPPIST, a lethal convergence of fastcore, sludge, powerviolence, and underground hardcore punk, out now on Tankcrimes. Self-described as “full blown marijuana addicts from Oakland, California playing really fast and very sludgy at times”, and likening themselves to Earth Crisis if they “smoked weed and listened to Spazz”, the bongclobbering members of CONNOISSEUR exhale raging upbeat/d-beat surges packed with resin-coated sludgedowns and brutal cheeba-charged vocal exhalations that consume the listener in a […]