Category: Features
Staff Infections – June 2017
Here we are in June, and it’s time to discuss what the Last Rites crew has been listening to this past month or so. The staff is fresh off its yearly team-building exercise, otherwise known …
Diamonds & Rust – Exploring Metal Classics: Queensrÿche’s The Warning
I’ve always been an anachronism. I was born in 1977, and thanks to some older cousins, I got into metal in the dying days of the 1980s, mostly through records and bands already well established …
Fast Rites – May 2017: Don’t Cry For Me, Florida
Reality shows have a special hold on America. The entertainment channels are chock-full of people crying, screaming, fighting, being overly drunk and just plain embarrassing themselves for the benefit of the viewer. And is the …
Remembering Chris Cornell – RIP 1964-2017
The greatest rock singer of all time. This is how I have often described Chris Cornell. Not that it is possible to prove such a thing, or that definitive rankings of rock voices matter, but …
Staff Infections – May 2017
Welcome, gentle readers, to a special Mother’s Day edition of Staff Infections. I have to admit tying a Mother’s Day theme into a piece on a heavy metal site is a bit beyond my capability. …
Music Over My Head – A King’s X Primer, Part 2
The first part of this two-piece primer covered King’s X’s golden era, the ten years between their debut and the loss of their major label deal. Of the six records they released during that decade, …
Music Over My Head – A King’s X Primer, Part 1
Generally speaking, artists are the sum of their influences. Narrow the scope of the influences and you narrow the scope of the art, and the artist will have a harder time separating his or her …
A Devil’s Dozen – Black Sabbath: The Tony Martin Albums
There’s a common misconception among most fans of metal. The idea is that Black Sabbath ceased to make top quality metal either after the (second) departure of Ozzy Osbourne in 1979 or on albums without …