Generally Impressed With Riffs
Somewhere here, underneath the harsh vocals and the completely unnecessary mini-bridges, lies a very decent, almost good traditional doom album. In fact, it’s not uncommon for the Last Rites staff to gather behind the scenes to listen to something like …
Suffocating, dark auras pulse along beneath a thick layer of toxic, extraterrestrial atmosphere. The inhuman voice of a timeless cosmic evil mingles amongst the haze with the stench of a thousand rotting worlds on its breath. Thermogravimetry Warp Continuum, the …
Fates Warning has long been a favorite among serious metalheads. These pioneers of the progressive/power metal genre (later turned straight progressive) have forever marched to the beat of their own drummer (usually in a fascinating time signature). The more intellectual …
Decades on from its heyday, grunge still evokes cringe-worthy memories. Even a whiff of the genre makes some people gag, and that’s understandable given that many of grunge’s lumberjack balladeers feigned their tortured genius in unquestionably awkward and embarrassing ways. …
Tomb Mold took the death metal scene by storm last year with their debut full length Primordial Malignity. Carrying an instantly recognizable sound and more than solid riffing, it’s no wonder the Canadian two-piece appeared …
Music of any kind is not just the sounds you hear. The intangibles matter. The context matters. No one will understand exactly why I love Harry Nilsson’s The Point, and I don’t expect anyone to, …
I was a big fan of Savage Land, the debut from death metal supergroup Gruesome, because the early era of Death to which the album pays tribute is my favorite era of Death’s music. Death …
Eighteen songs in eighteen minutes. There’s a balance in that, a certain perfect economy. No time for funny business, so give none; no time for prisoners, so take none. Get in; kick ass; get out. …
“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 …
Who would’ve guessed that the key to making a top-shelf death/thrash record might involve fun. You remember fun—that thing that occasionally happens after getting yelled at by your boss, getting yelled at by the internet, …
Portland is a land known for a few things. You’ve got gray weather, rain storms, the occasional forest fire, boutique/artisanal/bespoke type crafts, that show Portlandia which makes fun of all the aforementioned things and, of …
FAST RITES: because sometimes brevity is fundamental. Knelt Rote isn’t much for subtlety. Or variation. This Portland-based trio began as a grinding noisecore outfit, but by the time of 2012’s Trespass, they’d left that behind …
