“Album Of The Day” is a new Last Rites Facebook feature we started recently whose purpose is quite straight-forward: highlight one album per day and say a few words about it. Understanding that not everyone chooses to participate in the booking of faces, we thought it might be nice to toss in a new feature that gathers the albums in a single piece on a weekly basis.
Kicking things off, here are the seven albums we picked for the week of March 17-24.
Saturday, March 17th
Testament – The New Order (1988)
After the vicious thrash of The Legacy, Testament returned with a slightly more controlled attack on The New Order, arguably their finest record. With Peterson’s killer riffing, Billy’s Hetfield-ian gravelly growl, and Skolnick’s world-class shred, The New Order is filled to the gills with greatness, one of the best albums thrash ever had to offer. [Andrew Edmunds]
Sunday, March 18th
Deathwish – Demon Preacher (1988)
You really can’t go wrong with either of Deathwish’s albums, but Demon Preacher wins out simply because the title track is an absolute SMOKER that’ll make you want to do about a hundred smoldering donuts in a church parking lot with a ’69 Charger that has that sweet album cover airbrushed on the hood. Ten billion crushing riffs, endless molten leads, and a vocalist who sounds like a version of Tom Araya that never gave up on Show No Mercy—there really is no sound reason this record doesn’t get hailed more often. [Captain]
Monday, March 19th
Asunder – A Clarion Call (2004)
A Clarion Call is one of those records that doesn’t really do anything new with funeral doom—apart from very nearly not really being funeral doom and keeping things mostly death doom, which is also nothing really new—but it does everything it does better than basically everyone else who tries to do similarly. Clear as a forgotten, rotted mountain hillside enrobed in mystical fog? Good. Now we’re getting somewhere. ASUNDER BRING THE SLOW BOOM GLOOM. [Captain]
Tuesday, March 20th
Nocturnus – The Key (1990)
Pretty easy choice for our album of the day, given the release of a new Nocturnus AD song, “Aeons of the Ancient Ones“, earlier this morning. Many consider 1991 to be death metal’s most crucially enterprising year, and for good reason, but there were a few righteously intrepid explorers kicking out pivotal debuts in 1990 that played a critical role in launching death metal into more progressive spheres—Atheist’s thrashy/deathy gem Piece of Time and Atrocity’s twisted Hallucinations quickly spring to mind. But it was Nocturnus and their dynamic trip into occult sci-fi that truly turned things upside-down by incorporating (GASP) keyboards into the established Floridian death metal sound. With any luck, Nocturnus will rule again. [Captain]
Wednesday, March 21st
Voivod – Target Earth (2013)
Hey, remember fun? Voivod sure does. Maybe those outside our cozy realm would reject the notion that the brand of off-kilter, proggy thrash these Canadians (by way of the planet Mercury) hawk might be capable of inciting elevated levels of merriment, but we of the faith sure as hell know what’s up. Even more thrilling is the fact that Voivod seems to have found some mysterious (and very powerful) eighth gear on the ol’ spacecraft recently, and their new record is due to drop this year! In the meantime, don’t forget to revisit this banger. [Captain]
Thursday, March 22nd
Capitalist Casualties – Disassembly Line (1992)
Some sad news to go along with our Hardcore Desert Island Thursday here at Last Rites: Shawn from Capitalist Casualties has apparently passed on. Time to circle-pit your office, classroom, local grocery store, or wherever else you might be at this very moment to their 1992 debut full-length from Slap A Ham Records. Rest in peace, Shawn. You will be missed. [Captain]
Friday, March 23rd
Code – Resplendent Grotesque (2009)
Great things come in small packages, and at under 35 total minutes, Code’s sophomore album Resplendent Grotesque is about as high a concentration of black metal quality imaginable (not to mention maybe the catchiest tree of the Ved Buens Ende family). The band operated on a fierce dichotomy of savage aggression and sombering melody, delivered through a seemingly constant series of unforgettable riffs, vocal passages from Kvohst, and just moments (the wrist-opening sadness of “The Rattle of Black Teeth,” the rage of “Jesus Fever,” etc.). Since this album, Kvohst decided he’d rather waste his talents playing mediocre post-punk, while the rest of the band has done just fine with new singer Wacian. None of them, however, have achieved these heights since. [Zach Duvall]
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See you next week.
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I was fortunate to see Code perform in 2009 at Inferno Fest. That album is badass. BUT “mediocre” now?! With Beastmilk, Grave Pleasures, and Hexvessel, Kvohst has expanded his vision. Hexvessel live is a spiritual experience.
For some reason I thought this was going to be the usual new album roundup, then I figured it would be a mix of some old and some new but it seems to be whatever the fuck the writers want to nominate, and I’m absolutely fine with that on the basis that I was only familiar with half of the albums so yay for more metal. 🙂
Yeah it’s definitely a “whatever comes to mind” kinda feature. Sometimes we just blurb on something we like at the moment and put it in the bank for a future “album of the day” entry. Fun stuff for us, glad you dig!
Capitalist Casualties! My wish list just keeps getting bigger. Keep this stuff coming. Please and thank you!