Staff Infections – May 2025

Howdy, friends. I’m a little (a lot) late this month, but just in time for Memorial Day weekend, here’s the May edition of Staff Infections. Here’s hoping you and yours are enjoying some fun in the sun, and barbecuing your hearts out. If you’re attending Maryland Deathfest, pace yourself, and don’t forget to wear sunscreen. Now, let’s see what all your pals at Last Rites have been listening to for the past month (and-a-half).

There was a little more competition for album of the month this time around than there has been in the recent past. We had four albums in contention, with one claiming victory by the slimmest of margins. The fallout is a three-way tie for second place, including Depressive Age’s 1992 debut First Depression, Putrid Offal’s 2020 release Sicknesses Obsessions, and Zeicrydeus recent debut La Grande Heresie. The big winner this month is Steröid and their adorable (?) release Chainmail Commandos. Apparently Steröid is Australian, but this album sounds to me like it was made down in Fraggle Rock, or maybe Munchkinland. For a more in-depth examination of Chainmail Commandos, Ryan has a review for you right here.

For our group discussion this month, give us the weirdest metal you enjoy. Personally, I don’t place a huge amount of value in weirdness, being much more interested in skull-crushing riffs, but I do enjoy Demilich. Demilich isn’t too weird in this day and age, but for its time, Nespithe was one of the most unique and bizarre albums in death metal.

Before we wrap this up, be sure to listen to the staff-curated Spotify playlist below, and share your own playlist in the comments. Until next month, party hard, but not too hard.

• Zach Duvall
  Kraftwerk – Computer World
  Ningen Isu – heaps and heaps
  ZZ Top – Tres Hombres
  Uulliata Digir – Uulliata Digir
  Bloody Valkyria – In Our Home, Across the Fog
  Meshuggah – Chaosphere
• Captain
  Idmon’s Aegis – Under the Auspices of Idmon
  Zeicrydeus – La Grande Heresie
  Elusive God – Ambis
  Hellix – Montage
  Adam Ben Ezra – Heavy Drops
  Kaisa’s Machine – Moving Parts
• Danhammer Obstkrieg
  Kamasi Washington – Lazarus: Original Series Soundtrack
  Floating – Hesitating Lights
  Bad Religion – Suffer
  Chepang – Jhyappa
  David Murray Quartet – Birdly Serenade
  Unholy – The Second Ring of Power
• Andrew Edmunds
  The Who – A Quick One
  Agathocles – about two dozen splits
  Putrid Offal – Sicknesses Obsessions
  Depressive Age – First Depression
  Nazareth – Expect No Mercy
  Tangerine Dream – Rubycon
• Lin Manuel de Guerra
  Lloyd banks – The Course of the Inevitable 3: Pieces of My Pain
  Steroid – Chainmail Commandos
  K Koke – Winners Never Quit
  Rush – Moving Pictures
  Arch / Matheos – Winter Ethereal
  Angel Sword – Rebels Beyond the Pale
• Ryan Tysinger
  Truppensturm – Salute to the Iron Emperors
  Death – Leprosy
  Nachtfalke- Hail Victory Teutonia
  Solstice – White Horse Hill
  Steröid – Chainmail Commandos
  Gloomy Reflections – Oath of the Paladins
• Isaac Hams
  Zeicrydeus – La Grande Heresie
  Metallica – Ride the Lightning
  Ahab – The Call of the Wretched Sea
  Doechii – Alligator Bites Never Heal
  Tower – Let There Be Dark
  Sadness – Circle of Veins
• Spencer Hotz
  Changeling – Changeling
  Putrid Offal – Sicknesses Obsessions
  Cryptopsy – An Insatiable Violence
  Messa – The Spin
  Matthew Shipp – New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz
  Rush – Fly By Night
• Blizzard of Jozzsh
  Ancient Death – Ego Dissolution
  Morbific – Bloom of the Abnormal Flesh
  Enslaved – Below the Lights
  STERÖID – Chainmail Commandos
  Helloween – Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 1
  Helloween – Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 2
• Lone Watie
  CKRAFT – Uncommon Grounds
  Depressive Age – First Depression
  Malabriega – Frippada Andaluza
  Bjørn Riis – Fimbulvinter
  Fulguromatic – Fulguromatic
  Okonski – Entrance Music
• Jeremy Morse
  Hypocrisy – Osculum Obscenum
  Dying Fetus – Destroy the Opposition
  Melvins – Stoner Witch
  Ozzy Osbourne – The Ultimate Sin
  Black Sabbath – Vol. 4
  Defeated Sanity – Chronicles of Lunacy

Posted by Jeremy Morse

Riffs or GTFO.

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