Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

MNRK Heavy

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: Lord Dying – Clandestine Transcendence

LORD DYING’s third album, Mysterium Tremendum, set the Portlandians (Portlanders? Portlandites?) firmly amid the bands that release watershed albums in which they could’ve really gone any direction from where they were. Brushes with previous prog elements became more intentional, and it helped the foursome in carving out its own niche in the somehow currently crowded sub-genre of doom in all its facets. Clandestine Transcendence sees founders Olson and Evans return with a new rhythm section, and slowly, almost languidly ushering us into ‘The Universe Is Weeping’ with guitars reminiscent of WISHBONE ASH or PROCOL HARUM when they knew they had […]

Music News

CROWBAR Announces US Headlining Tour; Tickets On Sale Now

CROWBAR today announces a US headlining tour! The twenty-four-date journey begins September 7th in Fort Walton Beach, Florida and runs through October 5th in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Support will be provided by Primitive Man as well as Bodybox, on select dates. Additionally, the band will play a special show with Venom Inc. on October 1st in Iowa City, Iowa. Tickets are on sale NOW! See all confirmed dates below. CROWBAR w/ Primitive Man: 9/07/2023 Downtown Music Hall – Fort Walton Beach, FL 9/08/2023 Conduit – Orlando, FL 9/09/2023 The Orpheum – Tampa, FL 9/10/2023 Gramps – Miami, FL w/ Primitive Man, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Somnuri – Desiderium

SOMNURI from Brooklyn, NY play an interesting amalgam of sounds on this, their third full length album. A good deal of what they play is raw, angry sludge music with hellacious tortured vocals, but mixed with a much more melodic kind of tuneage that’s a lot like prime 90s grunge. The vocalist Justin Sherrell is a remarkably versatile singer, who runs the gamut from rasping troll-like screeches to almost Eddie Vedder-sounding clean vocals…and all points in between. On top of that, he’s also the guitarist for SOMNURI, so he is very much the focal point for the band. The contrast […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: I AM – Eternal Steel

Begun by vocalist Brandon Hileman in his 20th year, Texans I AM solidified their lineup in 2017, and have since put out a couple albums sparking a level of interest completely relative to the listener’s enjoyment of groove metal. While the Lone Star State has a plethora of fantastic metal bands, I’ll stand on Phil Anselmo’s ego and swear that PANTERA was never one of them. Yet still, their influence looms large, and thus we arrive at Eternal Steel, I AM’s third. ‘The Primal Wave’ is the grabbing of low hanging fruit from an orchard of already rotten fruit, Hileman’s […]

Music News

CROWBAR To Kick Off Summer Headlining Tour + Additional Dates Announced; Zero And Below Full-Length Out Now On MNRK Heavy

CROWBAR has begun The Riff Beast Tour, which includes eleven newly added dates, and runs through September 12th in Birmingham, Alabama. Tickets are on sale now! See all confirmed dates below. w/ Spirit Adrift: 8/02/2022 Emerson Theater – Indianapolis, IN 8/03/2022 King Of Cups – Columbus, OH 8/04/2022 Montage Music Hall – Rochester, NY 8/06/2022 The Chance Theater – Poughkeepsie, NY 8/09/2022 Saint Vitus – Brooklyn, NY 8/10/2022 Anchor Rock Club – Atlantic City, NJ 8/11/2022 Reverb – Reading, PA 8/12/2022 The Loud – Huntington, WV 8/13/2022 The Broadberry – Richmond, VA 8/14/2022 Local 506 – Chapel Hill, NC 8/16/2022 […]

Music News

High on Fire and Sleep’s Matt Pike Releases Debut Solo LP ‘Pike vs. the Automaton’

From rewriting the hard rock rulebook with his Grammy award-winning trio, High On Fire, to reverse engineering doom metal with his genre-defining trio Sleep, Matt Pike has channeled his natural talents and chiseled a steely path straight to the heart of modern-day metal’s molten core. Today, Pike releases his debut solo LP, Pike Vs. The Automaton, via MNRK Heavy. Music, merch and more is available at THIS LOCATION Born out of the challenges brought on by a worldwide pandemic, Pike Vs. The Automaton is both a musical and emotional release. The record was written by Pike with drummer Jon Reid, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Great American Ghost – Torture World [EP]

I’ve gotta confess, I’ a sucker for the EP format. Bands can either provide a taste of what’s to come, bust out a few cover versions, or stretch themselves into areas they wouldn’t feel comfortable with in an album format. Given our current global situation, the past year plus has given cause for many bands to pause and reflect on what it means to continue on, or if they can even financially/emotionally manage to do so. And, not for nothing, some brilliant art in all forms has been born from that reflection. GREAT AMERICAN GHOST has taken that time, looked […]