Howdy, friends. Welcome to the somewhat belated September edition of Staff Infections.
Is anybody else sick of people dying? I know it happens to everyone, but does it have to happen to so many people all at once? Eric Wagner, Charlie Watts and Norm Macdonald all gone since the last edition of this feature. The deaths of Charlie Watts and Norm Macdonald have just made me sad. 80 doesn’t seem as old as it used to, but it could hardly be said that poor Charlie died young. As for Norm, cancer is a motherfucker, and sometimes you just can’t beat it. Their deaths are great losses, but I can accept them. As for Eric Wagner’s death from Covid-19, I wish I could just feel sad, but sadness has to compete with anger. In my mind he didn’t have to die. True, none of the vaccines available provide one hundred percent protection from contracting Covid-19, and so it’s possible that he might have been infected even if he had been vaccinated, but it’s not as likely. And it’s even less likely that he would have died. He was lucky enough to live in a country where the vaccines are readily available, and he chose not to take advantage of the opportunity to protect himself. Certainly, it was his choice to make, but that choice, in my opinion, cost him his life. If you want a heartfelt tribute to Eric Wagner, please read Captain’s excellent piece right here. I’m still a little pissed off about the whole situation. If you are able to get vaccinated, and you haven’t yet, please do so.
Let’s get this trolley back on the rails: What the heck have your pals at Last Rites been listening to for the past month? Shit-loads of Iron Maiden is your answer. As you’re probably aware, Iron Maiden released their seventeenth studio album, Senjutsu, earlier this month. In celebration of this event, we published several Maiden-related features in the days leading up to the new album’s release, including pieces on cover art, B-sides and a ranking of the band’s studio albums. It is then no surprise that the Iron Maiden discography dominated the staff playlists this month. I reckon we’ll just grant album of the month status to the entire Iron Maiden catalog. With the passing of Charlie Watts, the Rolling Stones catalog also got a lot of love, so let’s give the Stones second place.
For our discussion this month, tell us one band you’ve always wanted to see but never got the chance to, and now it’s too late, because the band is no more. I’ve had tickets to see Trouble (with Eric Wagner) twice and missed them both times. The first time they never showed up to the venue, and the second time involved an oversold strip club / rock club and Powerman 5000, and I really don’t want to talk about it. Eric left the band, and now he’s dead, so I guess I’m never going to see the original Trouble.
Until next month, be sure to listen to the Spotify playlist below, share your own playlist in the comments, and try not to die.
- Zach Duvall
Queen – Queen II
PJ Harvey – Rid of Me
Black Wing – …Is Doomed
Low – The Great Destroyer
Armand Hammer – ROME
The Rolling Stones – Bunches and Bunches - Andrew Edmunds
The Rolling Stones – Some Girls
The Rolling Stones – Goat’s Head Soup
The Rolling Stones – Emotional Rescue
Scorpions – Taken By Force
Napalm Death – Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism
Regurgitate – Hatefilled Vengeance - Captain
Iron Maiden – Killers
Iron Maiden – Powerslave
Iron Maiden – No Prayer for the Dying
Iron Maiden – Best of the B’Sides
Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
Iron Maiden – A Matter of Life and Death - Dave Pirtle
Iron Maiden – The Final Frontier
Napalm Death – Fear Emptiness Despair
Sturgill Simpson – The Ballad of Dood and Juanita
Ex Deo – The Thirteen Years of Nero
Matt Harvey – Last Son of Krypton
Quicksand – Distant Populations - Danhammer Obstkrieg
Leprous – Aphelion
Hendrik Weber – 429 Hz Formen von Stille
Bruce Dickinson – The Chemical Wedding
Iron Maiden – All of the Iron Maiden
Ricardo Villalobos – Alcachofa
Voivod – Killing Technology - Spencer Hotz
Iron Maiden – Brave New World (yea I had this on my list last month. So what? Wanna fight about it?)
Typhonian – The Cosmic Pendulum
The Flight of Sleipnir – Eventide
Charnel Grounds – Molecular Entropy Examined in the Bowels of a Great Old One
Cerebral Rot – Excretion of Mortality
Nattmaran – The Lurking Evil - Lone Watie
Iron Maiden – So. Much. Iron. Maiden.
Eisenhand – Fires Within
A Formal Horse – Meat Mallet
Monobody – Comma
Ehsan Ghelsi – As It Ever Was
George Benson – Give Me the Night - Jeremy Morse
Iron Maiden – Brave New World
Iron Maiden – Piece of Mind
Blood Incantation – Hidden History of the Human Race
Trouble – Psalm 9
Ozzy Osbourne – No Rest for the Wicked
Tanith – In Another Time - Ryan Tysinger
Iron Maiden – Senjutsu
Nuclear Revenge – Dawn Of The Primitive Age
Nortt – Graven
Exanimatvm – Sollvm Ipsa Mor
Nunslaughter – Red Is The Color Of Ripping Death
Gärgäntuäh – Urmystyk
- Zach Duvall
Gama Bomb – Sea Savage
Wormwitch – Wolf Hex
Malossi – Blanke Barter
Replicant – Malignant Reality
Birthday Massacre – Pins and Needles
wolf King – Path of Wrath
I will always regret not seeing Type O Negative. I had two or three chances to catch them and for some reason something always came up that caused me to miss it.
Miles Davis – Bitches Brew
Deafheaven – Infinite Granite
Paranorm – Empyrean
Stargazer – Psychic Secretions
Lou Reed – Transformer
Polyphia – Muse
The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
Iron Maiden – S/T through Seventh Son
In terms of bands I’ve never gotten to see live, Agalloch was one I missed out on I regret never having the chance to see. They were once touring Europe when I was on holiday in Finland, but not in a country close enough to justify the extra travel. They broke up shortly after.
Kenn Nardi – Trauma
Trouble – Trouble
Thief – The Sixteen Deaths of My Master
Mourn The Light – Suffer, Then We’re Gone
Women Is The Earth – Dust Of Forever
Portrait – At One With None
I missed to see Warrel Dane with Sanctuary but also with Nevermore. I don’t remember why that happened.
Carcass – Torn Arteries
Iron Maiden – Senjutsu
Judas Priest – Defenders of the Faith
Mew – And the Glass Handed Kites
Ashra – New Age of Earth
Borknagar – Winter Thrice
I never got to see Primordial or Enslaved. The likelihood ever-diminishing at this point. Too many others to list? I’d have to think long and hard about that one.
Iron Maiden – Senjutsu
A shit ton of baroque
Hopefully a shit ton of vinyl I’ve been too lazy to open and spin
Power Trip stings for me. They were booked an hour and a half from where I live several years ago, and my daughter was excited to go, but the week before the show she waffled and I couldn’t be arsed to go by myself.
Acathexis – Acathexis
Replicant – Malignant Reality
Aborted – Terrorvision
Nifrost – Orkja
Alustrium – A Monument to Silence
Wode – Wode
Wode – Servants of the Countercosmos
Concerts I regret missing cause they’re no more: Skeletonwitch. I had tickets and went and the show was cancelled and that was it.
Carcass – Torn Arteries
Cancer – Death Shall Rise
Aborted – Mania Cult
Gojira – Terra Incognita
Gorilla Biscuits – Start Today
Ulver – Themes from William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Katatonia -City Burials
Carcass – Torn Arteries
Maiden – Senjetsu
Celtic Frost – Into The Pandemonium
Megadeth – Cryptic Writings
The one band that got away from me was Manilla Road. I had bought tickets on two separate occasions to see them at a local venue that I used to hang at damn near weekly. Low and behold, both times I had something come up and had to bail. I try to go out of my way to see aging artists because of this..especially bucket list bands. Still bums me out big time. There are not many bands that have 15 plus albums that I happened to never see.