Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

cruz del sur music

U.S. Heavy Metal Legends ATTACKER Celebrate 40th Anniversary with New Album, The God Particle

One of the early bastions of true U.S. metal, New ATTACKER is back to celebrate their 40th anniversary on The God Particle, a triumphant, eight-song classic metal offering! The new album will be released on CD, vinyl, and digital formats through Cruz Del Sur Music on April 12. Watch ‘The Mighty Have Fallen’ New Jersey heavy metal legends ATTACKER are celebrating their 40th anniversary in 2024. It’s a milestone marked by their influential 1985 Battle At Helm’s Deep debut and 1988 The Second Coming sophomore effort, as well as post-2001 reformation full-lengths like 2004’s Soul Taker and 2006’s The Unknown […]

Album Review: Stygian Crown – Funeral For A King

THIS is how you Doom! STYGIAN CROWN have written a textbook on epic slow motion metal with Funeral For A King and demonstrate just how this art should be performed. This is one of the best doom efforts of 2023 and might just slip onto my “Best Of” list for the year. This shit is heavy! Yet it is also stately and melodic…well composed and varied. The shadow of CANDLEMASS hangs deep over STYGIAN CROWN, but it’s not merely mimickry and there’s a thick burliness to the songs that exceeds what is generally heard from the Swedish masters. The title […]

Album Review: Gatekeeper – From Western Shores

GATEKEEPER returns after five years between albums, hopefully bolstered by new blood, with From Western Shores. Sure, debut East Of Sun (itself released nearly 5 years after the band’s initial 2013 demo) was solid “enough”, but if a power/epic metal band isn’t truly epic – if I don’t end up leaping about the Citadel fending off hordes, carousing with fairy maidens and raising my battle axe high whilst standing victorious atop a pile of my enemy’s vanquished – then I tend not to revisit the album too often if at all, and it lies forgotten. To be honest, I’m a […]

UK Trad-Metallers DARK FOREST Celebrate 20th Anniversary with September Release of New EP

UK Traditional Metal band DARK FOREST will celebrate its 20th anniversary with the September 30 release of new EP Ridge & Furrow. The EP will be released on CD, digital, and vinyl formats via Cruz Del Sur Music. A lyric video for EP opener ‘Skylark’ is available at THIS LOCATION The venerable DARK FOREST returns with the five-song Ridge & Furrow EP that celebrates their immaculate history and sets the stage for future melodic metal triumphs! The United Kingdom’s DARK FOREST has followed a single guiding principle throughout their 20 years as a band: Create and play the music they […]

MYTHOSPHERE Feat. PALE DIVINE and Ex-FATES WARNING Members Signs With CRUZ DEL SUR MUSIC

Cruz Del Sur Music is proud to announce the signing of MYTHOSPHERE, the band founded by Pale Divine guitarist/vocalist Dana Ortt and drummer Darin McCloskey. The pair are joined by their Pale Divine bandmate Ron McGinnis (bass) and none other than former FATES WARNING guitarist Victor Arduini. Their debut album will be released in 2023. A video for album track ‘King’s Call To Arms’ is available HERE MYTHOSPHERE’s origins began in 2020 when Ortt and McCloskey started working on material intended to be the continuation of Beelzefuzz. Their songs came to fruition in 2021 once the pandemic subsided, prompting Ortt […]

Album Review: Mirror – The Day Bastard Leaders Die

Look deep into this MIRROR and you’ll see the spirit of true heavy metal staring back at you. I thought the debut from this Greek band was fantastic and The Day Bastard Leaders Die is a more than worthy follow-up. The creation of SATAN’S WRATH bassist Taz, this band is 100% dedicated to the sounds of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal and the darkest ’70s hard rock. MIRROR play a rather elegant, almost baroque style of true metal that has a strong flavor of ANGELWITCH, CANDLEMASS and MERCYFUL FATE. Singer Jimmy Mavrommatis has a great clear voice that’s […]

Video for Title Track from ERIC WAGNER Solo Album Premiering on Keep It True Festival TV Special

The video for ‘In The Lonely Light Of Mourning’, the title track from former TROUBLE singer Eric Wagner’s posthumous solo album, is receiving its exclusive preview via the Keep It True Festival 2-day TV special onFebruary 6. The song features a guest solo from PLACE OF SKULLS/ex-PENTAGRAM guitarist Victor Griffin. “The title track is lyrically foreboding musically, vocally raw and emotional,” says Dave Snyder, who co-wrote the entire album with Wagner. “It’s intentionally spacious. We talked about the ‘less is more approach,’ leaving space to breathe. When we were putting this one together, Eric said once the chorus kicks in, […]

Album Review: Apostle Of Solitude – Until The Darkness Goes

Indiana’s APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE, on the outside, ticks all the boxes for what should make a great doom band. Decent cover art (if we forget the abysmal Last Sunrise of 2010 – which I can’t), they’ve been at it for well over ten years, so the lineup should be locked and loaded, and and and the band contains two members of the much-revered THE GATES OF SLUMBER… So, why doesn’t it work? The guitar tone grates from the start, and not in a good way. As a doom worshiper since the mid-late ‘80s, in all its forms, I can take […]

CRUZ DEL SUR MUSIC Releasing ERIC WAGNER’s Posthumous Solo Album, In The Lonely Light Of Mourning

Cruz Del Sur Music will release legendary former TROUBLE singer Eric Wagner’s posthumous solo album, In The Lonely Light Of Mourning in March 2022. Recorded at Alpha Sound Services and Aardvark Recording, In The Lonely Light Of Mourning was completed and delivered to Cruz Del Sur Music a month before Eric’s untimely passing. Initially scheduled for a November 2021 release, Cruz Del Sur Music — in cooperation with Eric’s manager, Michael Smith — agreed to move the release date to March 2022 to give it the attention it deserves. “It has been a great honor to have the chance to […]

Album Review: Pharaoh – The Powers That Be

“Bring me their heads! Set loose the war dogs! Blood will flow by the powers that be. . .”We’re not even two minutes into the title track of The Powers That Be, and already we are beckoned forth with an epic battle cry. If you can’t feel the call, I suggest you crank up your volume. If that weren’t enough to stir you, very well, go live in your mediocrity. Heads will remain on shoulders; the dogs will mope around in their kennels, and the only thing flowing will be your inner barbarian’s tears as you sit back down to […]