Desecation – Despoiled Ethereal Purity Review
[Album artwork by Jon Zig] Important question: Does tolerance suck? Not all the time, clearly, as it’s often tied rather closely to the ever-important trait of patience. Additionally, developing a tolerance for certain things can …
Diamonds & Rust: Praxis – Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) // Mother Earth Is Pregnant For The Fourth Time
[Album artwork by James Koehnline] As much as I love and appreciate the fact that my metal foundation was fortified by growing up alongside the genre in the ‘80s as a youth, I owe a …
Dimhav – Ondine Review
[Album artwork by Staffan Lindroth] The last time we gathered together under the Dimhav banner, I was busy losing my grip over the Swede’s very excellent and very sudden debut, 2019’s The Boreal Flame. I …
Funebrarum – Beckoning The Void Of Eternal Silence Review
[Cover artwork by Daryl Kahan] If you, like many of us here at Last Rites, are an ancient, or at least ancient-adjacent, then perhaps you’ve been listening to death metal for quite some time. For …
Última Batalla – Última Batalla Review
[Cover artwork by Subhuman at Desert Dungeon] Let’s talk about our love for quirky metal. Okay, sure, any definable level of ‘quirk’ is obviously subjective, but I’m guessing you know we’re not talking about the …
Savage Master – The Power // Mystic Storm – Wandering Time: Split LP Review
[Cover artwork by Timbul Cahyono] In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that I’ve always found the concept of the split to be flawed. It works best when there’s a shared theme or …
Lynx – Trinity Of Suns Review
[Album artwork by Lena Richter] “Nostalgia is probably overrated, at least the most common notion of it, the poignant sense that ‘what was’ is somehow inherently better than ‘what is’. It’s a lie of which …
Diamonds & Rust: 50 Years Of Rush’s 2112 — Please Shush About Ayn Rand
[Cover artwork by Hugh Syme] There’s quite a lot to unpack when attempting to tackle the 50th anniversary of an album as iconic and transformative as 2112. Straight off the bat, Rush was in a …