Generally Impressed With Riffs
[Cover art by Jef Whitehead] Cognizance’s In Light, No Shape serves as a useful reminder that when it comes to our musical preferences, our whats are subservient to our whys. If, for example, you are a fan of the early …
[Cover artwork by Michael Cloutier] Prog, of course, is known for technical musicianship and songwriting complexity above all else, a reputation well-earned by the early giants of the genre and happily maintained by their progeny ever since. It’s also true …
[Cover artwork by Timbul Cahyono] In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that I’ve always found the concept of the split to be flawed. It works best when there’s a shared theme or the band’s involved cover each …
[Cover art by Mars Triumph] Petrichor, the sixth full length album from Greece’s epic metal stalwarts Battleroar, commences with the sound of rain and an invitation to reflect. That word, “petrichor,” is a relatively new one (coined by scientists in …
These days it’s safe to admit publicly that things aren’t going well. It’s not uncommon to take your personal demise to social media and let the world know just how under-appreciated you feel. And why …
If there are three things I enjoy, it’s good beer, good metal, and bad puns. Ancient Brewing Tactics touches on all three. So let’s crack open a cold imperial IPA and see what we have …
“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 …
If you’ve had an ear directed towards the underground over the last few years, you know that more than any metal subsector, the death variety is on a tear. Seemingly every month there’s a new …
The ingredients for creating black metal suited to assuage all of the miscreants and low-lifes of a particular era during which black metal didn’t actually exist are many. In order to do it right, lest …
Last Rites doesn’t always do the best job of keeping readers on top of power metal. We cover it, of course, and always will, but we mostly showcase the records that really jump out and …
As a student of biology with a love for evolution, I tend to assign human reactions or preferences to evolutionary necessities and then think about what mechanism could have brought them about. Sort of an …
Before we dive in, a word of caution. Do not, under any circumstances, google “hyperdontia” without another word like “band” or “metal” or “dark descent” in the search bar. If you make this fatal error …
