Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Album Reviews

Album Review: GAVIAL – Thanks, I Hate It

‘Control’ eases us into GAVIAL’s second, Thanks, I Hate It, a loping, syncopated groove helmed by bassist Paul Kollascheck and Conrad Brod [drums] underpinning hazed out/phased out guitars and vocalist Benjamin Butter’s higher register timbre. Though it works more as an introduction to what’s coming, ‘Control’ does exactly what an opening track should by building anticipation, in this case for ‘Koru Mindset’. Unexpectedly energetic given the foursome’s comfort zone of mid-tempo explorations, ‘Koru Mindset’ brushes elbows with SHUDDER TO THINK, or possibly TAME IMPALA in a live setting, a bit of abrasion ala THE MARS VOLTA slashing through at times. […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Deadwood – Rituals Of A Dying Light [EP]

Canadian deathcore unit DEADWOOD return to the EP format three years after 2023’s Inhuman with Rituals Of A Dying Light. Once you get past the ridiculous guitar noodling at the start, ‘Tales Of Massacre’ obliterates, striding forward, heavy-footed and confident. ‘Heretic’ attacks from a more overtly death metal angle but isn’t lacking in the frequent time changes and vocal squeals/bellows that call deathcore home. ‘Thirst For Blood’ sticks mainly to the path the foursome has walked thus far, but it’s with closer ‘Echoes Of The Fallen’ that DEADWOOD begins to really stretch itself in a way it hasn’t before. Doom-paced, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Tenebro – Una Lama D’Argento

If you like plenty of red sauce in your movies as well as your pasta, TENEBRO from Italy is the band for you. This is death metal smothered in the tasty gore of the Italian giallo films…specifically, the movies of one Dario Argento. The connection between Italian horror and death metal is well known and TENEBRO might be better at it than any one except classic NECROPHAGIA. Above all, they get the creepy, suffocating atmosphere of Argento films like Inferno and Deep Red and transfer that dread to gruesome, gory death metal. The guitar tone here is unreal, coated in […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Ligation – After Gods

LIGATION, formed by DARK BUDDHA RISING alumnus MN and MS of enthralling funeral doom entity PROFETUS, and now joined by TI of brutal death crew PUS, arrives with its full-length debut, After Gods. A shagged-out doom groove strides in in the form of the title track, ghosts of DESULTORY (when they mattered) and GOREFEST’s Mindloss flitting around the corners. There’s already something unhinged at work here, be forewarned, slobbering death metal and chaos-reigning noise elements making an appearance, and we’re less than three minutes in. ‘Turmoil In Everest’ TI’s bass is robust in the same way as the slathering creature […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Gluecifer – Same Drug New High

GLUECIFER stood loud ‘n’ proud from its formation in mid-‘90s Oslo, its not-quite-sleaze but definitely unclean take on unadorned “don’t call it garage” rock putting it on equal footing with BACKYARD BABIES and THE HELLACOPTERS, and far above the likes of BAD WIZARD and THE WITCHES when it came to laying down the law of rock. Disbanding roughly ten years in, vocalist Biff Malibu, guitarists Captain Poon and Raldo Useless grabbed Danny Young, threw him behind the kit again, and kidnapped “new” bassist Peter Larsson to tour over the past nine years. And now, just under a decade after that, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Defaced – Icon

It seems crazy that anything that seems as angry as Icon is could be so dull, but here we are. This Swiss band…hailing from a country with a proud tradition of forward-thinking acts…winds up being a very boilerplate example of modern death metal. The cover art for Icon is absolutely spectacular. And that’s the best thing about it. If DEFACED reminds me of anyone, it’s the current version of KATAKLYSM. That’s not a great endorsement these days. The production is so shiny you can see your reflection in it. Death metal needs grit and filth. Only the best bands can […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Profane Elegy – Herezjarcha

When All Is Nothing blended the treble-heavy rush of black metal’s second wave with understandable yet snarling exhortations, a flirtation with the unpredictable, and a sense of economy that suited the duo that made up PROFANE ELEGY well. Now, 2 ½ years later, Mikael L. [vocals] and instrumentalist J. Gulick have taken a bassist and drummer into the fold and delivered unto us Herezjarcha. A word first, then on to the music. Yes, you honkbrayers, I’m fully aware that it’s 2026, and that bands are oft’ inclined to release singles from upcoming projects via streaming platforms. I question, though, the […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Hyperion – Cybergenesis

Sometimes you run into a band so pure that METAL must be written in all caps to describe them. Say hello to Italy’s HYPERION! These cats came out of nowhere to hit me upside the head with one of the year’s best METAL albums! This is 100% pure steel, forged in the fires of PRIEST, MAIDEN and ‘RYCHE but with a bracing jolt of speed and a kick of modern power metal. There are eight compact songs on Cybergenesis and I can’t find much of a flaw in any of them. There’s no pointless intro or corny narration, this thing […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Omnium Gatherum – May The Bridges We Burn Light The Way

Finland’s OMNIUM GATHERUM has never had it easy. Formed in 1996, during the time when the Gothenburg-born style of melodic death was really starting to stretch its legs and take confident steps original/current guitarist, Markus Vanhala, and co. were and have been fighting an uphill battle for recognition since the demo days. Sometimes great, sometimes good, but always deserving of a listen, the band enters the fray again in 2025 – just shy of the band’s 30th anniversary – with May The Bridges We Burn Light The Way. If you’re looking for the difference between “Intro” and “Instrumental” look no […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Architectural Genocide – Malignant Cognition

When you’ve got a sophomore album nearly six years in the making, and it’s shorter than Reign In Blood, one of two things has happened; either you’ve decided to shit something out super-quick just to keep the band name out there, or you’ve (hopefully) spent that time honing these songs to the point that they’re less “songs” than blades and boulders, both concertina wire-sharp and heavy as granite. Creepy-crawly “intro-not intro” ‘Precursor To Bloodshed’ sets the mood for Malignant Cognition, ARCHITECTURAL GENOCIDE ready to rumble like a bulldozer in the graveyard that is ‘Coercion Into Carnality’. Immensely guttural vocal spews […]

Older Posts