Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal & Extreme Music And Culture

Album Reviews

Album Review: Melt Motif – Particles. Death Objective

Blended Brazilian / Norwegian combo, MELT MOTIF quietly (or, maybe not so) crept into my Top 10 List for 2022, A White Horse Will Take You Home’s otherworldliness and simple refusal to be beholden to any “scene” or single genre alluring from first listen. The debut got comfortable over repeated listens but, to this day, will occasionally reveal some previously-hidden glitch, beat or melody, the mark of a truly good album. How, then, to top this? I have come to believe the often-documented “sophomore slump” – which also plagued GUNS ‘N’ ROSES after Appetite For Destruction – is at least […]

Music News

THE MOTH: German Doom/Sludge Metal Trio Signs To Exile On Mainstream; LP Due This Fall

Exile On Mainstream welcomes fellow Germans THE MOTH and their groove-heavy brew of doom/sludge metal to the label for their impending LP. Label owner Andreas Kohl states, “Just as a good friend recently put it: ‘This band, with this lineup and this sound – it was just a question of time until they land at your shores. They just belong to Exile On Mainstream.” The friend, Germany’s renowned Metal radio icon Jakob Kranz, envisioned what we kinda felt but didn’t know. So did we finally achieve becoming a label that defines through a certain sound? Have we become so predictable? […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Dawn Of Ouroboros – Velvet Incandescence

‘Healing Grounds’ wafts into the consciousness, vocalist Chelsea Murphy gossamer, almost too light for air over ethereal jazz that imagines Johnny Mercer doing a set in the outer reaches of the cosmos. When the metal shows up, and it does, it’s ultra-melodic and equally of space, but this is more a testament to the instrumentalists’ skill and ability to conjure a mood than anything else. Murphy’s siren song becomes shriek, the Baker/Thomas guitar duo displays a familiarity with their craft many could take a lesson from. Don’t think you’re in for some fey ride through lightweight lands for long, though, […]

Music News

NMB (The Neal Morse Band) announce An Evening of Innocence & Danger: Live in Hamburg, out 14th July 2023

NMB (The Neal Morse Band) present An Evening Of Innocence & Danger: Live In Hamburg, a live recording of their 2022 tour in support of their most recent studio album. Recorded live in Germany, this 3-disc release captures the band in fine form, presenting Innocence & Danger & more over nearly 2 and a half hours of music, and will be released on July 14th, 2023. Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy, Randy George, Eric Gillette & Bill Hubauer demonstrate a chemistry like no other on this musical document of that tour, supporting their fourth studio album, released in 2021. “NMB’s Innocence […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: RADIEN – Unissa Palaneet

I dunno, I must have a different idea of what “devastatingly heavy sludge” is than RADIEN and the folks who write their press. Sludge metal to me is an attack of thick, gooey bass heavy riffs that proceed in slow or medium pace, usually accompanied by pained vocals and thudding drums. I think of bands like ELECTRIC WIZARD, CROWBAR, WEEDEATER, BRAINOIL, etc. That description doesn’t seem to fit this Finnish act at all. Half of Unissa Palaneet isn’t even what I’d call metal, and the heavier parts seem much closer to what I think of as “post metal” (although a […]

Music News

Gabríel Ólafs Shares New Single ‘Bambaló’, New LP Lullabies For Piano And Cello Out June 9

Icelandic composer GABRIEL ÓLAFS debuts the single, “Bambaló.” The track is from his upcoming album, Lullabies For Piano And Cello, set for release on June 9 via Decca Records US. Listen to ‘Bambaló’ Watch the Official ‘Bambaló’ Live Performance Video via YouTube ‘Bambaló’ is rooted in the history and mythology of Iceland and its pure simple melody is an instant connection to the lullaby that has been shared for generations. Of the track, Gabríel shares, “The Icelandic version of the words ‘Rock-a-bye, baby’ is ‘Bambaló’ and so my piece for piano and cello is based on the lullaby. It is […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Liv Kristine – River Of Diamonds

LIV KRISTINE, she of the many bands/projects/faces returns with her sixth solo effort, River Of Diamonds. While yours truly had never really “gotten” LEAVES’ EYES, preferring her work with THEATRE OF TRAGEDY and MIDNATTSOL, the issue was never her vocals, more the musical style. This will be my first foray into LIV KRISTINE, the solo artist. And, as I’m not expecting Velvet Darkness They Fear, I feel I’ll be able to approach the album objectively. ‘Our Immortal Day’ begins, awash in keys, a throbbing bassline and the tandem vocal delivery (shared here by Osten Bergoy of LONG NIGHT and TRISTANIA) […]

Music News

Ascend Ascend: Janaka Stucky Live In Seattle With Lori Goldston 2xLP From Prolific Writer Out On Neurot Recordings

“Janaka Stucky is extraordinary, and his work riveting.” – Jimmy Page Neurot Recordings today unveils Ascend Ascend: Janaka Stucky Live In Seattle With Lori Goldston from prolific writer, poet, and performer JANAKA STUCKY. Praised by Jimmy Page as “riveting,” JANAKA STUCKY’s book length poem, Ascend Ascend, published by Jack White’s Third Man Books in 2019, gets a mesmerizing treatment on this album by the same name, accompanied by experimental cellist Lori Goldston. Goldston, known for her work with several acts – including Nirvana, Cat Power, and Earth – provides otherworldly layers of distortion and natural reverb over Stucky’s dirge-like vocal […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Voidceremony – Threads Of Unknowing

Virtuosity bereft of emotion be damned. If the songs don’t stick in the listener’s mind after the album’s finished, you’ve failed as an artist. This carries over to painting, the printed page, practically any form of would-be artistic expression. Art ceases to be art when “Look what I can do!” takes precedence over “This is how I feel.”, or even more so, “How does this make you feel?”. Three years after its debut full-length, VOIDCEREMONY returns with Threads Of Unknowing. The title track is an onion, multilayered, yet the skin is unwound, almost see-through in its viscosity, riffs and melodies […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Numeron – Road To Valhalla

Having not been exposed to NUMERON’s debut, Void, of 2021, I wasn’t expecting much – or anything, really – from the strangely titled Road To Valhalla. In and of itself, the title places an image in the mind, sure. But when the band in question is based in Indonesia, I find myself thinking of Celtic folk bands from Peru, Southern American-styled doom/riff rock from St. Petersburg, Russia, what have you. Yet Road To Valhalla is what I’ve chosen, so let’s wander on… ‘Light Upon The Ground’ starts our journey, awash in synths and processed vocals, Lufti’s register thus far goth-influenced, […]

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