Staff Infections – September 2021

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

Posted by Jeremy Morse

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