Hello, dear friends and loyal readers. Journey with me once more into the minds of the Last Rites staff, as we discover just what kind of music has been massaging the ears of these champions of metal for the past month or so. It’s a feature we call Staff Infections.
However, before we proceed, to the music, we have a sad bit of business to attend to. As you might already know, on March, 31st, at the Apollo theater in Belvidere Illinois, there was a disaster during a concert headlined by Morbid Angel. Due to extreme weather a portion of the venue’s roof collapsed injuring dozens and killing Fred Livingston Jr., who was attending the concert with his son. Here is a link to a gofundme page set up for the family of Mr. Livingston. While the donation goal for Fred has already been reached, I’m sure more wouldn’t hurt if you care to donate. Additionally, there are Link’s at the bottom of Fred’s page to other gofundme pages for individuals who injured at the concert. Many of these people have been hurt quite severely and, this being America, they are likely facing severely high medical bills, as well as time out of work. If you can afford to donate to them, they could assuredly use your help.
On to the music. A few of us folks here at Last Rites went on a little team outing to the Hell’s Heroes festival in Houston a couple weeks ago, and our enthusiasm for the festival’s line-up is reflected in the battle for this month’s album of the month. First up is an honorable mention for Hällas with three playlist appearances with various albums. I’ll be honest and say that Hällas isn’t my particular cup of tea, but I watched the group’s set at Hell’s Heroes, and, for the rest of the crowd, it seemed to be a rather special experience. Second place this month is a tie between another Hell’s Heroes band in Pagan Altar, with it’s album Judgment of the Dead and the Debut album from Triumpher, Storming the Walls. Danhammer has the scoop on Triumpher here. Finally, the big winner this month is another Hell’s Heroes band, Freeways, with their second album, 2020’s True Bearings. If you’re unfamiliar with Freeways, or even if you are, you should check out our special guest review/travelogue of True Bearings from televisions B.J. and the Bear (It’s really Captain and Ryan).
We’re just about done here, but before we warp it up, be sure to listen to the staff-curated Spotify Playlist below, and share your own playlist in the comments. While you’re at it, let us know the best concert you’ve ever been to. Give us a couple, if you can’t narrow it down. Personally, it’s awful hard to pick one, but a definite contender is Black Sabbath in 1999. This was the first time I’d seen Sabbath with Bill Ward, and boy did he make a difference. That’ll do for this month. Take care of yourselves, and get outside and get some vitamin D.
- Andrew Edmunds
Rotten Sound – Apocalypse
Rotten Sound – Exit
Savatage – Power Of The Night
Nile – Black Seeds Of Vengeance
Max Romeo & the Upsetters – War Ina Babylon
The Cure – The Top - Danhammer Obstkrieg
Acid King – Beyond Vision
Baazlvaat – Incredible World
Triumpher – Storming the Walls
Dødheimsgard – Black Medium Current
Tanith – Voyage
Manowar – Into Glory Ride - Zach Duvall
Dødheimsgard – Black Medium Current
Hypocrisy – The 4th Dimension
Sonny Clark – Cool Struttin’
The Cure – Faith
Cannibal Corpse – catalog binge
Immortal – Battles in the North - Ryan Tysinger
Freeways – True Bearings
Pagan Altar – Judgement of the Dead
Hällas – Isle of Wisdom
Greyhawk – Keepers of the Flame
Gabestok – Med Freden Kommer Hadet
Triumpher – Storming the Walls - Captain
Edena Gardens – Agar
Dystopia – Dystopia
Savage Oath – Savage Oath EP
Aura Noir – Deep Tracks of Hell
Tim Hecker – No Highs
Ride – Nowhere - Spencer Hotz
Devangelic – Xul
Sepulcrum – Lamentation of Immolated Souls
Freeways – True Bearings
Hällas – Conundrum
David Bowie – Hunky Dory
Kristofer Maddigan – Cuphead Original Soundtrack - Lone Watie
Hällas – Discography
Freeways – True Bearings
Helloween – Keeper of the Seven Keys, Parts I & II
Murder By Death – Who Will Survive, And What Will Be Left Of Them?
Sabaton – Carolus Rex
Ahmad Jamal – Happy Moods - Dave Pirtle
Merle Haggard – Like Never Before
Life Sex and Death – The Silent Majority
Cruachan – The Living and the Dead
Skinner – The Dark Design
Haken – Fauna
Puig Destroyer – S/T - Jeremy Morse
Pagan Altar – Lords of Hypocrisy
Pagan Altar – Judgment of the Dead
Morbid Angel – Covenant
Iron Maiden – The Book of Souls
Nekromantheon – Rise, Vulcan Spectre
Black Sabbath – Mob Rules
Downfall of Gaia – Silhouettes of Disgust
Blackbraid -Blackbraid
Prince – 1999
Enslaved -Heimdall
Zola Jesus -Arkhon
Hellripper – Warlocks Grim…
Maybe not the best per se, but I saw The Haunted, Shadows Fall and Damageplan in a small basement club in mid-Nov ‘04. (I was a HUGE Haunted w/ Dolving fan at the time). It was such an intimate space for bands with such huge sounds. Despite Damageplan’s somewhat underwhelming debut, Dimebag still possessed the golden guitar god charisma of his stadium days and any time he wanted he’d swing the attention of the whole place to just him and he seemed larger than life in those moments. Later, through a wild set of coincidences, I was able to meet and talk with members of The Haunted. Amidst those interactions I was also able offer an all too brief hello to DD which was graciously reciprocated (I saw him talk to so many fans that night and what really stuck was how genuinely kind and sweet he was). It was less than 3 weeks later he was murdered on stage. Between how awesome the show itself was and being able to meet some heroes and legends that night, it sticks out as the most impactful show I’ve seen.
boygenius – the album
Tim Hecker – No Highs
Spirit Possession – Of the Sign…
Enslaved – Heimdal
Majesties – Vast Reaches Unclaimed
Lycus – Tempest
The best concert I ever attended was Tribulation at Hopscotch Festival in 2016. I headbanged so hard that my glasses flew across the stage and ended up right under Adam Zaars’ amps. I yelled to him to please return them. He gestured “Shhhhh..” to me, the band launched into another song, and when they were done, he went back to his amps, retrieved my glasses, and very kindly returned them to me. That I experienced this show with my son and one of my best friends only added to the overall religious experience.
Oh man, Lycus – Tempest, what a killer record.
Entropia – Total
Fargo – Geli
Thron – Dust
Sermon – Of Golden Verse
Shores of Null – The Loss of Beauty
Anareta – Fear not
Hard to pick the best concert ever, I go for Savatage and Vicious Rumors in October 91, a lot of energy from both bands and killer set lists.
Deep Purple – In Rock
Nile – Black Seeds of Vengeance
Hellcrash – Demonic Assassination
Stormwitch – Walpurgis Night
Black Curse – Endless Wound
Best concert ever?! That’s tough. Too tough for one.
Seeing Botch many times in small all ages venues in the 90s
Mars Volta on the Deloused in the Comatorium tour on my 21st bday
Skull Fist in a Portland dive bar that was later featured on bar rescue…
Byron Lee and the Dragonaires – Jamaica SKA
The Runaways – S/T
Judas Priest – Sin After Sin
Ozzy Osbourne – Diary of a Madman
Street Force – Infinite Battles
DRI – Thrash Zone
Gang Starr – Hard to Earn
So many concerts…the shows had the most impact are those from my salad days:
Iron Maiden – World Piece Tour
Judas Priest – Defenders of the Faith
Venom/Slayer/Bible Black – Combat Tour (circa 1984)
Negative Plane – The Pact
Ne Obliviscaris – Exul
Gorod – The Orb
Psychonaut – Violate Consensus Reality
Insomnium – Anno 1696
My favourite concert is hard to say. Seeing Rammstein at the Big Day Out when I was 16 still stands out in my mind, as does seeing Tool for the first time when I was 17 – both of them for the spectacle beyond the music (though the music was great too). Seeing Mastodon opening for Slayer stands out most in terms of epic nights, followed by the time Opeth was supported by Katatonia.
Revocation – Netherheaven
Ne Obliviscaris – Exul
The Chasm – Deathcult for Eternity: The Triumph
Allegaeon – Damnum
Candlemass – Sweet Evil Sun
Skeletal Remains – The Entombment of Chaos
Immolation – Acts of God
Immolation – Atonement
Iron Maiden – Killers
Iron Maiden – Senjutsu
My favorite concert was Black Sabbath in 2015 on the 13 tour. It was the first time I saw Black Sabbath, and the the only time I would ever see the iconic band that literally was the genesis of heavy metal, so it was really special. Yes, Bill Ward was not there, which was unfortunate, but they were awesome nonetheless. Ozzy sounded great. Their entire set was from their first four albums, which was unexpected and thrilling.