Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

Balefire – Balefire [MLP]

The keys of ‘Black Sun’ dissolve into the caustic eruption that is ‘Sands Of Gemini’, bassist Chuck Sherwood and his interplanetary cohort managing to somehow be knuckle-dragging and technically mind-bending simultaneously. ‘Star-Born Revolt’ is convoluted, chaotic and cerebral, pre-Obscura GORGUTS on bath salts, when you could sense the obliteration of senses that was that album on the horizon. ‘Barbaric Rebirth’ is especially concise, yet covering so much in so short a space, so that the nearly 4 minutes of ‘Lord Of The Red Lands’ seems almost epic in scope. This is death metal birthed from some alternate dimension where entire […]

FLESHSPOIL (feat. Arsis, The Final Sleep, Illucinus alumni) Releasing Debut Album in March

Troy (NY) – A new force in Blackened Death Metal has emerged to lay waste to 2025! FLESHSPOIL, featuring veteran players from Arsis, The Final Sleep, and Illucinus, will release full-length debut album, The Beginning Of The End, March 28 on digital format. Fans of classic death, black, and doom metal take note! FLESHSPOIL delivers a haunting and aggressive soundscape, and features a lineup of seasoned musicians: Jeff Andrews (guitar/vocals), a veteran of New York’s metal scene, known for his work with The Final Sleep, Armor Column, Hush, Ironweed, Scavengers, and Held Under. Mike Van Dyne (drums), known for his […]

Album Review: Rats Of Gomorrah – Infectious Vermin

While the members of German death metal entity RATS OF GOMORRAH may not be new to the genre or the frustration that comes with wanting to branch out or explore new horizons within what (to some) is a staunchly policed style, ROG is a new project, born from the ashes of DIVIDE. The trio has trimmed down to a two-piece, and we now are given Infectious Vermin. Wasting no time with the all-too-common trope of the “Intro” track, ‘Swarming Death’ lives up to its name from the first hammering rhythm, the first chop of the guitar, Daniel Stelling’s [guitar/vocals] delivery […]

RWAKE To Release First New Album In Over 13 Years, The Return Of Magik, On March 14th Via Relapse Records; New Video/Single Now Playing + Preorders Available

After thirteen years of silence, an unsettling sound that is strangely familiar yet somehow even more haunted re-emerges from the Arkansas depths. There is no mistake as to what this is. RWAKE has released a new transmission. The Return Of Magik, set for release on March 14th via Relapse Records, has arrived. Years have now fed into an album that reaches into a swirling, cosmic unknown – RWAKE has grown, and the perspective of the material has shifted accordingly. Overwhelming at its peak and haunting during moments of respite, The Return Of Magik is undeniably RWAKE. Every movement feels like […]

Album Review: Aeon Gods – King Of Gods

Cosplay metal has really gotten out of hand…there’s so many bands that look like they’ve escaped from San Diego Comicon that bands wearing plain street gear now seem to be the outcasts. AEON GODS originate from Germany, but one look at their promo pic shows they would rather be from ancient Babylon. Oy vey! I put my head in my hands after seeing that, but when I got around to putting King Of Gods on the stereo, I must admit…this is not that bad at all. Yes, it is pompous symphonic power metal…what else would you expect from Scarlet Records? […]

GREENLEAF: Revolution Rock Deluxe 2xLP announced on Blues Funeral Recordings

Blues Funeral Recordings team up with Swedish heavy rock giants GREENLEAF to present Revolution Rock Deluxe, a special reissue of their first two classic records in one fully remastered and redesigned package to be released on March 28th. Stream a rocking first excerpt with ‘Sold My Lady (Out The Back Of An Oldsmobile)’. Led by guitarist Tommi Holappa of European desert rock icons Dozer, GREENLEAF began as an informal collective of friends making music inspired by their shared love of ’70s riff rock. Having transformed into a proper band in 2013, Greenleaf enters 2025 at the forefront of the global […]

Album Review: Harakiri For The Sky – Scorched Earth

While 2018’s Arson was, to my ears, a true fork in the road for HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY – an album where the band could’ve taken any number of divergent paths, all worthwhile – Mære felt very much as if the duo had decided to make camp in the lands of Arson, either unwilling, or undecided as to how to move forward. Factor in the re-recordings of 2010 debut and sophomore Aokigahara released in 2022, and it leaves one to wonder how the time since Mære was spent. Scorched Earth arrives, and now we know, for better or worse. Plaintive, […]

GUILTLESS: Post-Metal/Sludge Outfit To Release Debut LP, Teeth To Sky, Via Neurot Recordings March 7th; Title Track And Preorders Posted + Prepare The Ground Performance Announced

Stream GUILTLESS’ ‘Teeth To Sky’ Neurot Recordings presents the label’s first release of 2025 with the debut from West Coast US-based quartet GUILTLESS – formed by members of A Storm Of Light, Intronaut, Generation Of Vipers, Battle Of Mice, and more – titled Teeth To Sky. Born from a love of experimental rock, noise rock, early industrial, sludge metal, and doom, GUILTLESS unites drummer Billy Graves, guitarist Dan Hawkins, bassist Sacha Dunable, and guitarist/vocalist Josh Graham, who collectively herald the coming of a heavy music which looks both inwards and out to convey the encompassing mixture of hope, despair and […]

EX DEO – Year Of The Four Emperors [EP]

EX DEO has always been a band with no reason to exist to my ears, largely as it’s literally KATAKLYSM with one extra member. I will say this for opener ‘Galba’, though; it’s more enjoyable than most of what’s come from either band in over a decade. ‘Otho’ is lackluster, basic and by-the-numbers, while ‘Vitellius’ begins with a fucking stellar low-end groove, and does return variations on this from time to time. Too little too late at this point, though. Obviously a vanity project from its start, EX DEO continues its own revelry in glut with Year Of The Bored […]

VACUOUS Announces Relapse Records Debut Album, In His Blood, Out February 28th; New Video/Single Now Playing + Preorders Available

Hailing from the withering depths of the UK, VACUOUS makes their Relapse Records debut with their new album, In His Blood, set for release on February 28th. An overdose of death metal, In His Blood is a compelling mix of blazing speeds, chilling atmospherics, and angular riffing that brings the band into their own unique space. “We’ve talked about having different influences, and it felt like a bit of a dare to push things further,” guitarist Michael Brodsky says. “Back in death metal’s formative days, with bands like Autopsy, Obituary, and Incantation, none of those bands sounded like each other: […]