Category: Features
Best Of 2022 – Zach Duvall: No Dung Ahead
Welcome all, to another view into my listening mind. As usual, I will surely regret the ordering of these items within the fortnight. Or maybe I won’t, because this is just a snapshot, and it …
Best Of 2022: Captain – Death Is Not My Enemy
[Content advisory: The following article contains an in-depth and intimate account of the loss of a loved one. If you believe the reading could be traumatizing, you may wish to forgo it.] A handful of …
Best Of 2022 – Last Rites Combined Staff Top 25
I have spent the better part of a full morning kicking over rocks in all the corners of my brain in an attempt to recall any sort of crucial trends, significant controversies or major Pants-Filling …
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 …