Happy new year, friends. Here’s hoping 2019 finds you in good health and spirits. Before we can let 2018 go entirely, we have to look back into what the Last Rites Staff has been listening to for the last month.
Only one album featured in more than one (two to be exact) playlist this time around. Danhammer and Lone Watie have both been spinning some rather nasty death metal from Portland, in the form of Living Tomb, the forthcoming full-length debut from Ossuarium. Have a listen:
As for second place, I guess it’s dealers choice, so we’ll go with something from my playlist. I’m generally late to the party for most metal trends, and I pretty much missed crossover entirely, outside of Agnostic Front’s flirtations and maybe Suicidal Tendencies, if that counts. Thankfully, I have a lot of good friends here at Last Rites to guide me into unexplored musical territories, metal and otherwise, even if I often go kicking and screaming. My pal Konrad Kantor is our resident hardcore expert, and I have him to thank for bringing the unique crossover thrash stylings of Leeway into my life. Leeway was pretty formidable, musically speaking. The group definitely leaned heavily toward the metal end of crossover (early on, anyway; things got a little whacky later), with tight and dexterous playing, but Eddie Sutton’s uniquely maniacal vocals kept the group tied to hardcore. Enjoy a taste of Leeway’s 1989 debut, Born to Expire, and while you’re sharing your playlist in the comments, share your favorite crossover album, if you have one.
- Zach Duvall
Nirvana – Bleach
Veilburner – A Sire to the Ghouls of Lunacy
Fugazi – Repeater
Van Halen – II
Vader – The Ultimate Incantation
Ulver – War of the Roses - Manny-O-War
Camp Cope – How to Socialise & Make Friends
Jon Balke – Siwan
Angel – Helluva Band
Colter Wall – Songs of the Plains
Oksennus – Sokea idiootti
Oingo Boingo – Boi-ngo - Andrew Edmunds
Wishbone Ash – Pilgrimage
Malice – In The Beginning
Pentagram – Be Forewarned
Mott The Hoople – Mott
Fates Warning – FWX
Dismember – Dismember - Konrad Kantor
Visigoth – The Revenant King
A Forest of Stars – Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes
Skulmagot – Skulled to Death
Queen – Sheer Heart Attack
Autechre – NTS Session 3
Satanic Warmaster – Carelian Satanist Madness - Captain
Wishbone Ash – Wishbone Ash
Wishbone Ash – Argus
Uriah Heep – Demons and Wizards
Survivor – All Your Pretty Moves
Atomic Rooster – Death Walks Behind You
Pernicion – Seek What They Sought - Ryan Tysinger
Death Fortress – Reign Of The Unending
Running Wild – Death or Glory
Sulphur Aeon – The Scythe Of Cosmic Chaos
Weregoat – Pestilential Rites Of Infernal Fornication
W.A.I.L. – Wisdom Through Agony And Into Illumination And Lunacy, Vol. I
Goatlord – The Last Sodomy Of Mary - Dave Pirtle
Soilwork – Verkligheten
In Victory – Uplifting Metal
John Garcia and the Band of Gold – S/T
Judas Priest – Firepower
Mudhoney – Digital Garbage
Squalus/Shadow Limb – Mass and Power - Danhammer Obstkrieg
Avantasia – Moonglow
Avantasia – Ghostlights
Avantasia – The Mystery of Time
Bergraven – Det Framlidna Minnet
Hecate Enthroned – Embrace of the Godless Aeon
Ossuarium – Living Tomb - Jeremy Morse
Immolation – Kingdom of Conspiracy
Leeway – Born to Expire
Dream Death – Journey Into Mystery
Metallica – Ride the Lightning
Thin Lizzy – Black Rose: A Rock Legend
Dismember – Indecent & Obscene - Lone Watie
Ossuarium – Living Tomb
All Traps on Earth – A Drop of Light
Loudness – Devil Soldier
Karmic Juggernaut – The Dreams That Stuff Are Made Of
Lord Divine – Facing Chaos
Volvox – Universo Expandido
Primordial – “To the Nameless Dead”
Enslaved – “Madraum – Beyond the Within – ”
Accept – “Restless and Wild”
Tomb Mold – “Manor of Infinite Forms”
Tangerine Dream – “Force Majeure”
Warlock – “Triumph and Agony”
Helfró – Helfró
Moonreich – Fugue
Aorlhac – L’espirt des Vents
1914 – The Blind Leading the Blind
Queen – Discography
Shadow’s Mortuary – Tulen Valtakunta
January is the time to catch up on the great stuff I missed last year (not to mention just what was released in December!). I’ve also been going back through the decade in metal, catching up on a few albums I missed from 2010. (I’ve also made a new year’s resolution to myself to listen to more jazz, so that’s influenced my tastes this month too.)
Sulphur Aeon – The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos
Veilburner – A Sire to the Ghouls of Lunacy
Clavicus Vile – The Nightspirit’s Call
Stargazer – A Great Work of Ages
Deathspell Omega – Paracletus
Hailu Mergia – Lala Belu
Can’t say I’m a particularly big crossover/thrash fan either, so I guess I’ll go with “Manifest Destination” by Power Trip.
Enslaved – Isa
Enslaved – Ruun
Manticora – To Live to Kill to Live
Voivod – Post Society
Voivod – The Wake
Not a lot of repeat listens this month.
Amorphis – Queen of Time
Slugdge – Esoteric Malacology
Dream Theater – Metropolis pt2
Dream Theater – Train of Thought
Golgothan Remains – Perverse offerings to the void
Necronomicon – Rise of the elder ones
Death Fortress – Deathless march of the unyielding
Grave Ritual – Morbid throne
Obscura – Retribution
Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire – Songs of ill hope and desperation