Staff Infections – January 2026

Welcome back, friends, to the first Staff Infections installment of 2026. On behalf of Last Rites, I’d like to wish you all a happy new year. On behalf of myself, I’d like to say fuck 2026 already. I’d like to say fuck some other things, almost everything, in fact. However, you all don’t need to listen to an old man rant; you’re here to find out what the fine folks here have been listening to for the past month, so let us get to it.

First, an honorable mention must go to Blizzard of Jozzsh for giving Marduk a fighting chance at album of the month. Unfortunately for Marduk, Jozzsh didn’t get any help from the rest of the staff, but damn, pal, that’s a lot of Marduk. We had quite a few contenders for album of the month, resulting in a three-way tie for second place, including the Agalloch classic The Mantle and another classic in Immolation’s Unholy Cult. Rounding out second place is Hip-Hop duo Armand Hammer and The Alchemist with their recent album Mercy. The big winner this month is Ectoviod with it’s hot-off-the-press third album, In Unreality’s Coffin. Ectovoid’s drummer C.M. is one of the Last Rites old guard, so, as you can imagine, we’re pretty happy to see Ectoviod back in action.

For our group discussion this month, let’s do some metal-related new year’s resolutions. Share with us, if you will, anything metal-related you’d like to change, explore, revisit etc. in the coming year. For myself, I’d like to get back to writing something for Last Rites besides this here monthly feature. We’ll see if I can fit it into my all ready pretty full schedule of doom-scrolling, Helldiving, fairly shitty guitar playing, and anguishing over the future of my country.

Before we part, be sure to share your own playlist in the comments, and have a listen to the staff-curated playlist below. Until next month, you all stay safe.

• • Zach Duvall
    Type O Negative – Dead Again
    Ectovoid – In Unreality’s Coffin
    Armand Hammer & The Alchemist – Mercy
    Cannonball Adderley – Somethin’ Else
    Unbirth – Fleshforged Columns of Deceit
    Kakothanasy – Dystomorph
  • Andrew Edmunds
    Immolation – Unholy Cult
    Vader – The Ultimate Incantation
    Kreator – Extreme Aggression
    Deicide – Legion
    Rotten Sound – Mass Extinction
    Rob – Rob (Funky Rob Way)
    
  • Captain
    Hällas – Panorama
    Afterbirth – In But Not Of
    Noor – Mother’s Guilty Pleasure, Pt. 1
    Sugar – Copper Blue
    Motion I – Out Of / Into
    Jeremy Pelt – Tomorrow’s Another Day
  • Spencer Hotz
    Immolation – Unholy Cult
    Incinerate – Eaten Raw
    Agalloch – The Mantle
    Natural Information Society and Bitchin Bajas – Totality
    The Chronicles of Father Robin – The Songs & Tales of Airoea
    REZN – Solace
  • Lone Watie
    Messa – The Spin
    Misantropical Painforest / W.A.I.L. – Dare to Venture Down to Earth, Father! Perish into Nothingness
    Ectovoid – In Unreality’s Coffin
    35007 – Phase V
    Jeff Buckley – Grace
    Emil Brandqvist Trio – Poems For Travellers
  • Blizzard of Jozzsh
    Marduk – Nightwing
    Marduk – Dark Endless
    Marduk – Those of the Unlight
    Marduk – Heaven Shall Burn … When We Are Gathered
    Marduk – Opus Nocturne
    Marduk – Memento Mori
  • Danhammer Obstkrieg
    Ligation – After Gods
    Phendrana – Cathexis
    Indigo Girls – Swamp Ophelia
    Kris Davis & the Lutoslawski Quartet – The Solastalgia Suite
    Ectovoid – In Unreality’s Coffin
    Agalloch – The Mantle
  • Jeremy Morse
    Solstice – White Horse Hill
    Sacrifice – Forward to Termination
    Carcass – Torn Arterties
    The Crown – Deathrace King
    Dawnbringer – Into the Lair of the Sun God
    Suffocation – Effigy of the Forgotten
  • Isaac Hams
    Gillian Welch – The Harrow & The Harvest
    Blut Aus Nord – Ultima Thulee
    Queensryche – The Warning
    Ectovoid – In Unreality’s Coffin
    Farseer – Portals to Cosmic Womb
    Armand Hammer – Mercy

Posted by Jeremy Morse

Riffs or GTFO.

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