Rebel Wizard

Hailing from Australia, Rebel Wizard fuses fidelity-be-damned black metal with fist-pumping, over-the-top heavy metal, a sound its sole architect Bob Nekrasov has christened "the new wave of negative wizard metal." The one-man project surfaced in the early 2010s when Melbourne-based Nekrasov—who has long helmed the mononymic black metal/noise rock outfit Nekrasov—launched Rebel Wizard in 2012. Intent on channeling three decades of heavy metal listening into a style true to his own preferences, he merged the soaring guitarmonies of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden with the blackened, lo-fi thrash of Emperor and Darkthrone. A succession of singles and EPs paved the way for the debut full-length, 2016's Triumph of Gloom, issued on Prosthetic Records and met with considerable underground acclaim. Two years afterward came Voluptuous Worship of Rapture and Response, followed in 2020 by the headbanging and neck-snapping Magickal Mystical Indifference, both of which continue to mine the remains of icy extreme metal and riff-heavy NWOBHM.