Category: Features
Best Of 2022 – Top 10 EPs & Demos
If there’s one thing that we at Last Rites cannot be accused of, it’s not expressing ourselves enough to get the points across. Maybe it’s our enthusiasm in discussing the finer points of this wide …
Best Of 2022 – Our Album Art Favorites
Chances are pretty high that a not insignificant part of what first drew you to heavy metal were the aesthetics and imagery associated with our beloved genre. Maybe you were a young lady raised in …
We Have The Power – The Top 30 Power Metal And Power-Related Albums Of 2022
Heartfelt hails, salutes, subtle nods and solemn bows, all you heroes and villains. As implausible as it may seem, it’s time once again to dust off our helms, spot clean those cravats, fluff those poet …
Album Premiere: Ancient Mastery – Chapter Two: The Resistance
Writers and artists build by hand little worlds that they hope might effect change in real minds, in the real world where stories are read. A story can make us cry and laugh, break our …
Diamonds & Rust: 30 Years Of Vader’s The Ultimate Incantation
[Cover art by Dan Seagrave] For a band named after a movie villain that tended to wax poetically about destiny, there sure was a coincidental amount of serendipity surrounding their proper debut album. But before …
Track Premiere: Prophetic Suffering – “The Suffering”
Whether it’s called war metal or bestial black metal (or if you’ve come up with a fairly pedantic set of parameters to separate the two), there’s no denying Canada certainly has a hell of a …
Deathsiege – Throne Of Heresy Review
Fast Rites: because sometimes brevity is fundamental. Sometimes you want bands with nuance, and sometimes you just want a band to roll over you with the force of 10,000 hammers wielded by 10,000 cloned Donnie …
Ancient Enemy – The Plague Ship Review
Fast Rites: because sometimes brevity is fundamental. The Bandcamp page of LA’s Ancient Enemy proudly states that they play “down to the gutter” metal. With The Plague Ship representing their first official release, you might …