Generally Impressed With Riffs
[Album artwork by Maciej Kamuda] I’ve always been fascinated by Japanese culture, but more importantly, I admire its people. That fascination has persisted throughout my life, stemming from childhood when I was just captivated by the beauty and courage of …
It’s been a minute since I’ve committed any significant amount of time to listening to doom. Any doom, really. From anywhere. Of any type. And not because there hasn’t been great doom the past few years. Rather, my attention has …
[Cover Art by Daniel Karlsson] Februus is a one-man project driven by the prodigious and still developing talents of Sweden’s Andreas Karlsson. His latest, Construction of Conflict, delivers 40 minutes of guitar-centric death metal that, despite being packed to the …
There’s much more than this plane of existence. Are you willing to listen? A few years ago, one of the more obscure bands on my year-end list happened to be Germany’s Ch’ahom and their debut full-length LP Knots of Abhorrence. …
“Groove” – the word is almost enough to send old-school metalheads into paroxysms of rage or fear or both. For those of us who survived the 90s / early 2000s, we remember all too well …
To say that the entire genre of stoner doom is boring, rote or derivative is obviously an overstatement, exaggeration and a downright offensive comment. But to say the genre capitalizes on the perceived laziness and …
There are records that were made to be treated as an experience. These records were made for lighting some votives, shutting off the lights and sinking back into the couch as you allow the music …
“Album Of The Day” is a Last Rites Facebook feature we started whose purpose is quite straight-forward: highlight one album per day and say a few words about it. Understanding that not everyone chooses to …
In the timeless words of Glenn T. Seaborg, one of the scientists responsible for discovering plutonium, “Holy shit, that’s heavy.” Hitting play on Obscene Majesty for the first time is akin to what I imagine …
I don’t recall exactly when I first purchased Ozzy Osbourne’s Tribute, but I bought in on cassette, so that would mean early 90s. I wasn’t into metal when the album was first released in 1987, …
How do you put a band like Phobia in context? Nearly three decades old, with a single/split catalog that makes it almost impossible to really dig in deep to their whole career–at least if you …
There is only so much that one person can take. Apply enough pressure, be it physically or emotionally, and that a person is bound to crack along some biologically predetermined fault line. Inevitably a person’s …
