Staff Infections – April 2024

Alright, friends and neighbors, it’s Staff Infections time, wherein the erudite and sophisticated individuals that staff your favorite metal site share with you some of the sounds that have graced their well-trained ears in the past month. Furthermore, at no additional charge, you get to listen to this cretin of a writer share some half-formed thoughts about music and / or the state of the world. As to the state of the world, I won’t pretend this is the first or even the fifth time the United States has actively supported and / or looked the other way on genocide, and I won’t pretend that the U.S. government is on firm moral ground on much of anything, but boy does it still suck. It doesn’t seem that hard to pretend to give just the tiniest bit of a shit about the slaughter of innocents, but I don’t have a re-election bid to fund, so I guess I’ll never know the struggle. Truly, I shouldn’t be surprised; the only god in America is the almighty dollar, and it spends just the same, blood-stained or not. Anyway, let’s talk about music.

We have a big winner this month, the biggest we’ve had in a long time, in fact. But before we get to that, let us shine a light on the four-way tie for second place. We’re off to a classy start with some potty-themed goregrind in the form of Hemorrhoid’s full-length (by grind standards) debut Raw Materials of Decay, which was given the Blast Rites treatment by Mr. Andrew Almonds. You can trust Andrew’s opinion on grind, as he knows his shit. Next, we have the soon to be released album Lifeless Birth, from the relatively young but reliably old-school death metal outfit Necrot. Taking it back a few decades, our penultimate contender is the legendary prog-metal outfit Queensrÿche, with its second official release and first full-length album The Warning. Rounding out second place, and jumping back to present day, we have Savage Oath with its recently released Long-play debut Divine Battle, an album full of classic heavy metal glory. When it comes to heavy metal glory, however, few can rival our champion this month: the venerable and still-mighty Judas Priest, with its latest album Invincible Shield. While one could say that Priest’s resounding victory here—appearing on eight out of ten playlists—is a reflection of the disturbingly high average age of the Last-Rites staff, but I prefer to think that it’s because Priest really knows their business after fifty-odd years in the game.

That’s about it for this month. Before you go, have a listen to the staff-curated Spotify playlist below, and share your own playlist in the comments. While you’re at it, give us your favorite Judas Priest album. Personally, my favorite is Sad Wings of Destiny, but in a shameless bit of hedging, I could easily go with Stained Class or Defenders of the Faith. Take care, and we’ll see you all next month.

• Andrew Edmunds
  Carcass – Reek Of Putrefaction
  Kreator – Endless Pain
  Pestilence – Malleus Maleficarum
  Judas Priest – Invincible Shield
  Wojczech – Sedimente
  Agnostic Front – One Voice
• Zach Duvall
  Judas Priest – Invincible Shield
  Queensrÿche – The Warning
  Rotting Christ – Thy Mighty Contract
  Kokoroka – Could We Be More
  Miles Davis – Bitches Brew
  Watchtower – Control and Resistance
• Captain
  Noor – Mother’s Guilty Pleasure Part One
  Judas Priest – Invincible Shield
  Savage Oath – Divine Battle
  Necrot – Lifeless Birth
  Hextar – Doomsayer
  Helloween – Walls of Jericho
• Ryan Tysinger
  Queensrÿche – The Warning
  Dawnbringer – Nucleus
  Slave Agent – Silent Universe
  Fuego Eterno – Trance Tras El Velo Del Inconsciente
  Judas Priest – Invincible Shield
  Solitude Aeturnus – Through the Darkest Hour
• Josh Heath
  Dödsrit – Nocturnal Will
  Lamp of Murmuur – Heir of Elliptical Romanticism
  Necrot – Lifeless Birth
  Coffin Storm – Arcana Rising
  Darvaza – Ascending into Perdition
  Hemorrhoid – Raw Materials of Decay
• Madman
  Judas Priest – Invincible Shield
  The Dread Crew of Oddwood – Rust & Glory
  Brat – Social Grace
  Goat Major – Ritual
  Alestorm – Voyage of the Dead Marauder
  Thin Lizzy – Live & Dangerous
• Spencer Hotz
  Judas Priest – Invincible Shield
  Hemorrhoid – Raw Materials Of Decay
  Replicant – Infinite Mortality
  Suffocation – Hymns From The Apocrypha
  Insect Warfare – World Extermination
  Abysmal Torment – The Misanthrope
• Danhammer Obstkrieg
  Black Art Jazz Collective – Truth to Power
  My Dying Bride – A Mortal Binding
  Coffins – Sinister Oath
  The Lawrence Arms – Apathy and Exhaustion
  Shakira – Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran
  Cabinet – Hydrolysated Ordination
• Jeremy Morse
  Judas Priest – Invincible Shield
  Sanctuary – The Year the Sun Died
  Tzompantli – Tlazcaltiliztli
  Overkill – The Years of Decay
  High on Fire – Snakes for the Divine
  200 Stab Wounds – Slave to the Scalpel
• Lone Watie
  Judas Priest – Invincible Shield
  Savage Oath – Divine Battle
  Noor – Mother’s Guilty Pleasure, Pt. 1
  The Church – Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars
  Behrooz Paygan – Lunar Rhapsodies
  King Crimson – The Power to Believe

Posted by Jeremy Morse

Riffs or GTFO.

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