Staff Infections – November 2020

Hello, dear readers. It’s November—mid-November by the time you read this—which would ordinarily mean this awful year is almost over, but I would not be surprised if 2020 somehow manage to last thirteen or fourteen months. Things certainly aren’t looking good on the pandemic front; the Coronavirus is spreading further and faster than we’ve seen here in the U.S. since the virus first reached these shores. There is reason for hope, as there is supposedly an effective vaccine on the horizon, and we have recently elected a new president that, at the least, is willing to listen to scientists and healthcare professionals. In the meantime, however, I suspect things will get much worse before they get better. But hey, let’s set aside the doom and gloom for a moment and see what your pals at Last Rites have been listening to.

It was a fierce battle for album of the month, but either way, the winner was going to be prog. Second place goes to the latest and possibly last album from revered prog-metal veterans Fates Warning, Long Day Good Night. This epic, seventy five-minute record receives a suitably epic review from devoted fan and proud prog nerd Capitan right here. First place goes to Wobbler, with its fifth album, Dwellers of the Deep. This one also falls to Captain, who delivers another in-depth and informed review here.

As we generally skip Staff infections in December to avoid list overload in a list-heavy month, I’ll wish you all a safe remainder of 2020 and the happiest holidays you can manage. Be sure to check out our staff curated Spotify playlist below, and share your own playlist in the comments. While you’re at it, since the aforementioned year-end lists are fast approaching, along with your playlist, give us one of your favorites from 2020, preferably something that might have gone under the radar.

• Andrew Edmunds
  Fates Warning – Long Day Good Night
  Napalm Death – Throes Of Joy In Jaws 3-D
  Triage – Triage
  Suffocation – Breeding The Spawn
  Genesis – The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
  Today Is The Day – Supernova
• Lone Watie
  Dark Quarterer – Discography
  Fates Warning – Long Day Good Night
  Wobbler – Dwellers of the Deep
  Molasses – Through the Hollow
  King Crimson – The Night Shift (Live at the Concertbebouw, Amsterdam, November 23, 1973)
• Spencer Hotz
  Icare – Khaos
  Wake – Confluence
  MRTVI – Omniscient Hallucinatory Delusion
  Kahn – Space Shanty
  Wobbler – Dweller of the Deep
  Cryptae – Nightmare Traversal
• Danhammer Obstkrieg
  Draconian – Under a Godless Veil
  Autechre – PLUS
  Solstafir – Endless Twilight of Codependent Love
  My Dying Bride – A Line of Deathless Kings
  Worm – Gloomlord
  Diana Krall – This Dream of You
• Captain
  Approximately 160 power metal albums
• Manny-O-Lito
  Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band – Landmarks
  Fates Warning – Long Day Good Night
  Wobbler – Dwellers of the Deep
  Undeath – Lesions of a Different Kind
  Gil Scott-Heron – Bridges
  Mogwai – Every Country’s Sun
• Dave Pirtle
  Jello Biafra & the Guantanamo School of Medicine – Tea Party Revenge Porn
  Mr. Bungle – The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo
  Niviane – The Ruthless Divine
  Raging Speedhorn – Hard to Kill
  Armored Saint – Punching the Sky
  Van Helsing’s Curse – Oculus Infernum
• Zach Duvall
  Lamp of Murmuur – Heir of Ecliptical Romanticism
  Defeated Sanity – The Sanguinary Impetus
  Wobbler – Dwellers of the Deep
  Autechre – SIGN & PLUS
  Oranssi Pazuzu – Mestarin kynsi
  Rotting Christ – Theogonia
• Ryan Tysinger
  Angel Sword – Rebels Beyond the Pale
  Hawkwind – Space Ritual
  Eternal Champion – Ravening Iron
  Saint Vitus – Die Healing
  Saint Vitus – Mournful Cries
  Warning – Warning II
• Jeremy Morse
  Van Halen – Everything with Dave
  The Obsessed – Sacred
  Danzig – Danzig
  Cathedral – Soul Sacrifice / Statik Majik
  Scorpions – In Trance
  Metallica – Ride the Lightning

Posted by Jeremy Morse

Riffs or GTFO.

All Posts