Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

lord randall

Album Reviews

Album Review: The Rottening – Seeds Of Death [EP]

In which ex-members of Swedish death metal band INTESTINAL take shape under the moniker of that band’s last album, new vocalist in tow, to create, you guessed it…Swedish death metal. Carrying over three songs from last year’s Ode To Rot demo and adding a couple new ones, THE ROTTENING breathes, eats and shits the Stockholm sound on initial EP, Seeds Of Death. So, you know what you’re getting, and can stop now or move forward into demise. The Swedish Chainsaw is revved up with ‘Ode To Rot’, the tone a bit less coarse than I’d anticipated, but still raw, hard-charging, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Necrot – Lifeless Birth

I remember really digging on NECROT’s sophomore full-length, Mortal, maybe partly because it was released in the throes of the pandemic, when the world was in literal spastic convulsions. Songs like ‘Stench Of Decay’ and ‘Malevolent Intentions’ were cut to the chase, no frills death demons that gave (at least these ears) an escape from the political haranguing and media talking heads. Lifeless Birth’s opener, ‘Cut The Cord’ slices and dices with exactly none of the precision of, say, CARCASS, but more a rusty cleaver hacking away, chunks of gore a’ flying into the speed-driven title track. Less chord-driven, just […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Sons Of Ra – Tropic Of Cancer [EP]

Instrumental. Avant-Jazz. Fusion. Well, there are three words that sound to these Luddite ears like a recipe for disaster. While I’ve become very intrigued of late with the idea that what most would term “background music” can actually make for a worthwhile listen and fill a space, most times it’s just sonic clutter, and I’m going to hard pass on that alone. Add “Avant-Jazz” and “Fusion”, and I’m truly already wondering why I bothered. Maybe it’s that Jazz has (until very recently) always come across as some inside joke played by the performers to stroke their own already-inflated sense of […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Mastiff – Deprecipice

I can’t help it. I think it all started when “We’ll never make a fuckin’ video!” METALLICA began its not so long, not so slow slide down the greased colon that is mainstream acceptance and fortune/fame over quality. So when Yorkshire lads MASTIFF signed to multi-media conglomerate eOne for 2021’s Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth, I was a bit trepidatious, let’s say. Thankfully, nothing changed but the name on the spine of the CD/record, as that album included some of the best work the band had put to tape yet. Still on eOne (now rebranded as MNRK Music […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Slimelord – Chytridiomycosis Relinquished

‘The Beckoning Bell’ begins firmly in left field, what sounds for all the world like deranged chickens but might be infected frogs squawk-croaking away until the massive bass-driven riff ‘n’ rhythm hit, and Hell spews forth from the guts of vocalist Andrew Ashworth. Already a rollicking almost loping groove is present, albeit intermittently shattered with chaotic moments of blasting death euphoria. This, friends, is a 7+ minute trip through your lower intestinal tract, so deep is the rumble manufactured by SLIMELORD here. Dual leads vomit us forth into ‘Gut-Brain Axis’, each guitarist being revealed as more than capable at crafting […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Wytch Hazel + Phantom Spell – ‘Ride On’ / ‘Palantiri’ [7″]

‘Ride On’ is classic WYTCH HAZEL, and yes, by now there is such a thing, so beholden are Colin Hendra and his troupe of travelers to the times which their sound evokes. Energizing and hope-affirming, these fellas are keepers of a faith too often mocked within heavy music, but one listen can make even the blackest heart open to the melodic message. More progressive from its start, PHANTOM SPELL’s ‘Palantiri’ recalls ARMAGEDDON, or a more rockin’ FIREBALLET (think ‘Centurion’ from Night On Bald Mountain) at times, harmony vocals and abundant keys lilting and lifting. At its heart, this little gem […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol – Big Dumb Riffs

For its all-important third album, Austin trio RICKHSAW BILLIE’S BURGER PATROL have, if possible, gone even more primal with Big Dumb Riffs. ‘Clowntown’ spot welds Bleach-era NIRVANA to PIXIES, while ‘1800EATSHIT’ plows grooves deeper than Ron Jeremy in the ‘80s. Tempos may slow from time to time over the course of this abbreviated album, but I’ll be durned if the syrup-laden ground ‘n’ pound of TAD and MELVINS might have been given a run for its money with ‘Peanut Butter Snack Sticks’. ‘Whip It Around’ follows suit, injecting a bit of HELMET to the point you can – if you […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Besotten + Funerelic – Abyssal Synodality

Damn, the older I get the more I’m loving these little one-off split releases. Maybe it’s memories of mixtapes traded that almost made shit sound nastier once you went down to 8th gen. There two Pacific pummelers seem to thrive in such realms, BESOTTEN early on locking into a mid-‘00s GRAVE groove in ‘Anothered’. ‘Subterranean Realms Of Excrutiation’ lives up to its name, plodding and pain-inducing. FUNERELIC’s ‘Tomb Of The Necrolith’ follows the same path, but adding good many sonic convulsions along the way, all welcome, all ominous in their love of the stench-ridden. Ending with ‘Devoured In Obsidian Flame’, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Hands Of Goro – Hands Of Goro

‘Prince Of Shokan’ kicks off (and out) the jams on HANDS OF GORO’s self-titled debut here, replete with ‘70s rawk riff glory and pulsing rhythms. These three ain’t no spring chickens when it comes to bringing this sort of thing to the party, members of neo-classic metallers SLOUGH FEG, doomhounds SPIRIT ADRIFT and blackened NITE comprising the crew here. “Metal” is the operative word here, from the fast-paced ‘Demonizer’ to ‘Uncanny’ with its NWOBHM gallop (SAXON, Di’Anno-era IRON MAIDEN). The psyche-progrre-delic freakout of ‘21st Century Plague’ manages to slam some proto-punk into the mix as well. Think THE SWEET’s ‘Ballroom […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Nomura – The Silent Whisper [EP]

Right out the gate I’ve gotta worry about a djent band. Sorry, I’ve heard more than enough pissing and moaning about how I “just don’t get it”, but you know what? If releases like The Silent Whisper keep flatulating across my desk, I’m glad. NOMURA seems to revel in the masturbatory style of TESSERACT and MESHUGGAH, with no discernable tunes anywhere to be found amid the spend drying on the tissues and socks that must surely litter their space after “practice”. ‘Embrace The String’ and ‘Natural Revange’ jerk and jitter past like the band’s scared a song might actually catch […]

Older Posts