Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Transcending Obscurity Records

Album Reviews

Album Review: Carnophage – Matters Of A Darker Nature

After 2 albums on respected Californian death metal imprint Unique Leader, CARNOPHAGE returns (yep, you guessed it, eight years later), this time on India’s multi-genre Transcending Obscurity, and with Matter Of A Darker Nature. Now, here’s the thing; I don’t really give a right rolling crap how “brutal” you are. If the songs aren’t there, I’m never going to give your shit more than one spin, unless you count the one down the toilet. Keeping the same lineup intact over the past two albums has served the Turkish entity well, as opener ‘In My Bones’ holds onto the face-forward energy […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Wombbath – Agma

Sweden’s WOMBBATH were there in the gory glory days of almost my favorite style of death metal. Gimme an HM-2 and I’m at least giving your band a chance. A demo, EP, split, you know the drill, and then 1993’s Internal Caustic Torments showed some promise…and then, the aptly-named Lavatory EP flushed all the gains of before right on down. It’s really only since 2015 that the band has come into its own, of a sort, and an argument could be made that the hiatus was simply a case of “right band, wrong time”. Clocking in at over 70 minutes […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: The Slow Death – Siege

Never has a band been more accurately named. I could feel all the remaining seconds of my life tumble into oblivion as this tedious blob of boring doom metal numbed my very soul. This is one of the dullest records I have heard in a long, long time. Let’s write 20-minute long songs just because we can. Not that they’d actually be better in less than half the time, we’ve got to show we are DOOOOOOOM metal. Stuff and nonsense! It’s getting so that every time I see a song longer than 10 minutes, I cringe internally, because I know […]

Music News

Irish doom/sludge band SOOTHSAYER return with debut full-length, Echoes Of The Earth

Irish atmospheric doom/sludge band SOOTHSAYER have come up with a majestic album that takes the best elements of doom and sludge metal and creates something truly impactful and moving. There’s a kind of intensity in their generally soothing music that’s rare in the style, echoing the sentiment of mother nature finally lashing back at us all after being subjected to the ill-treatment doled out by the humans for years and years. The official video can be streamed on both Bandcamp and YouTube, with another one poised to come out soon. Irish doom/sludge band SOOTHSAYER released a gem of an EP […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Wombbath – Tales Of Madness

When I spoke to WOMBBATH earlier in 2020 regarding their newest Choirs Of The Fallen release, the members hinted at re-recording “a song or two” (mostly from the admittedly flushable Lavatory EP days), because of their confidence in the current lineup being able to beef up the material. Now, roughly 9 months later, we have Tales Of Madness, a compilation of 6 (count ‘em!) reworked songs spanning the band’s career, as well as a couple new bits to let us know what they’ve been up to since Choirs… Kicking off with ¾ of the Brutal Mights demo, ‘Tales From The […]

Interviews

INTERVIEW: EREMIT

From Lower Saxony cometh EREMIT, spreading a sludge/doom hybrid we’re soon to find is not as rare in Germany as most would’ve expected. Instead of spewing bile-drenched hymns of misanthropy and addiction (though there may be something of allegory within), this trio envelops the listener in a world of its own creation, and its recently-released EP, Desert Of Ghouls. Wander… BENEATH A CRUSHING WEIGHTInterview with Moritz Fabian [Guitars/Vocals] of EREMITInterview By: Lord Randall Rebel Extravaganza: Germany. Known for thrash, black and folk metal, but doom? Moritz Fabian: I think this is always dependent on the perspective from where you´re looking […]

Music News

German sludge/doom band EREMIT’s album streaming in full

EREMIT’s Desert Of Ghouls EP is now streaming online in its entirety, and can be checked out HERE. We especially recommend this EP for metal fans who like their doom to be laced with terrific riffage, and an eternal atmosphere of its own. German sludge/doom metal band EREMIT released a groundbreaking debut in Carrier Of Weight, which was widely regarded as some of the heaviest sludge/doom music recorded and despite the length of the songs, riveted listeners from all over. Retaining the same mind-numbingly heavy sound, EREMIT trudge forward with brand new material that’s even tighter and catchier than before. […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Noctu – Gelidae Mortis Imago

The sound of dripping, as of water from a stalactite in a long-forgotten cave begins Gelidae Mortis Imago, ‘Suicidio al chiaro di luna’ acting less as a standard “intro”, carrying its own ambience. Melancholy keys, evoking an air of the classical and befitting the genre in which NOCTU operates, lead into ‘Fitte Tenebrae (Le radici dell’ inferno), which oppresses and shrouds as it was meant to, multi-tracked and oppressive choral vocals perverting the liturgical. It’s here that we first realize what NOCTU exhales are more “patterns” than “songs”. If one is looking for verse/chorus/verse – or anything “standard”, it can […]

Music News

Swedish death metal legends WOMBBATH sign to Transcending Obscurity Records

We are proud to announce the signing of Swedish old school death metal veterans WOMBBATH. They were part of the birth of Swedish death metal and this year are celebrating their 30th year with an EP containing a selection of re-recorded songs from their early years, with a full length to follow later. From the official announcement link HERE Label owner Kunal Choksi states, “I know this band since their ‘Internal Caustic Torment’ days and they’ve come a long way. Having already worked with Jonny Pettersson for several of his bands such as Henry Kane, Heads For The Dead, Nattravnen […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: XPUS – In Umbra Mortis Sedent

XPUS are a mysterious new death metal force from Italy and they are well worth checking out if you like your DM gloomy, morbid and sounding like it just erupted from a rotten crypt. Although not without a flaw or two, these evil revenants perform the amazing feat of sounding fairly original while evoking the spirit of many early progenitors of death. If you prefer chunky, oozing riffs with the hint of doom, XPUS are your boys. Even their faster moments (and they are capable of DEICIDE level speed) have that essential feeling of sickness and sorrow. There are touches […]

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