Generally Impressed With Riffs
[Cover art by Claudio Elias Scialabba] Italy’s Into Darkness has been a band for approximately 15 years but is just now releasing its first full length album, Route to the Other Side, but all that time has been greatly beneficial …
[Cover art by David Preissel] The sounds of Neurosis’ “Locust Star” emanate from a desktop speaker wired to an iPod Nano via ⅛-inch cable “Hey maaaan … is that Ponderous Post Metal?” “Yeah maaan …” “Well turn it up MAAAN!!” …
[Artwork by Vicky “Liddo” Morales] In a soak-your-underwear sweaty, tetanus-to-the-touch warehouse in the middle of Skid Row, Raw Addict played its first show. Weeks earlier, drummer Isaac made the irresistible sales pitch, stating that the multinational band connecting grind lifers …
Picture this, brah brah: You’re out enjoying a nice meal with the in-laws. It’s a pleasant setting—a beach vacation, let’s say. The sun gently peeks above the horizon, illuminating the tides as they roll in and wash away the footprints …
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. This Portland-based trio began as a grinding noisecore outfit, but by the time of 2012’s Trespass, they’d left that behind in favor …
Uada comes to us from Portland, but instead of sounding like 1,000 other Pacific Northwest black metal bands, the particular brand offered on sophomore album Cult of a Dying Sun sounds pulled from 90s Sweden. …
The California trio Grayceon’s music is, admittedly, difficult to categorize. (While this means there is likely no one right answer, it does not mean there are no wrong answers: do not call it sludge. This …
Nequient (adj.) — incapable. I had to look that up. So we all learned something here today… Moving forward: I’m not telling anyone anything they don’t already know, of course, but the past few decades …
