The New Rebel Wizard Totally Slays, Guys

I wrote an Unsigned & Unholy about Melbourne-based negative metal act Rebel Wizard last year, and have since occasionally wondered when I’d hear some new music from them. Well, today I saw a write-up of the band’s new album on No Clean Singing, complete with a stream of their new record, Triumph of Gloom, and hoooleeee shit, this album rules.

Like Swedish power occultists Sulphur, Rebel Wizard’s music doesn’t fall easily into one subgenre or the other. There’s definitely a lot of black metal influence on Triumph of Gloom –some arch-evil riffs, the hoarse shrieked vocals, a general rejection of existence — but there’s also a ton of power metal’s guitar wizardry, thrash’s kinetic bounce, and doom metal’s creepy atmosphere. “Eat The Warlock” channels as much Holy Grail as it does Immortal, and “Sorcery” sounds like it could come from an early Castlevania soundtrack. The result is pure metal that isn’t shoehorned into a niche, but instead combines awesome aspects of the genre’s many branches into something fun and different.

Listen to Triumph of Gloom below and get negative as all Hell. The album is out now and available at Rebel Wizard’s Bandcamp.