Category: Reviews

Effluence – Anticholinergic Derangement Review

[Cover art by Matt Stephens – sole full-time member of the band] If you’re reading this, there’s a very good chance that you are a music obsessive. More than likely, that means you consume other

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

Deafkids – Cicatrizes Do Futuro Review

[Cover artwork by Douglas Leal] Listening to the new album from Brazil’s Deafkids, Cicatrizes Do Futuro, I’ve been thinking about rivers. [indignant voice from the back]: WHAT? Mea culpa, friend. I’m here today to preach

Yoth Iria – Gone With The Devil Review

[Album artwork by Harshanand Singh] The third album is in some ways a litmus test for a band’s longevity. Three albums is a sufficient sample size—you can generally tell where a band is headed, whether

Darkthrone – Pre-Historic Metal Review

[Pre]-historically speaking, the boys, Nocturno Culto and Fenriz, have always been influenced by the likes of Celtic Frost, Bathory, and all things ‘80s. In fact, they don’t shy away from the fact that it’s always

Crown Lands - Apocalypse cover

Crown Lands – Apocalypse Review

[Cover art by Quinn Henderson] You’re familiar with the term, “unc,” right? If not, it generally refers to a washed up older feller whose personality in large part revolves around extravagantly performing confusion and/or displeasure

Gadget – Coerced Review

[Artwork by Caroline Harrison] “Nonsense” opens with a slow fade-in of distorted guitars and seismic drums — the chaos before the swarm. It’s a trick of the trade, the extreme metal equivalent of a camera

Konquest – Dark Waters Review

[Cover artwork by Luca “Zeero” Zironi] There was always something uniquely charming about Konquest’s brand of traditional heavy metal—an almost whimsical breeziness that still felt like a near perfect balance of playful and substantive. A