Generally Impressed With Riffs
[Cover artwork by Old Hag] When I initially realized that Arckanum’s first album after a long hiatus—and, technically, its breakup—would be released on All Hallows’ Eve, I devised this rather cutesy and far-fetched idea to compare the entire album to …
[Album artwork / art direction by Joseph Niet / The Creative Corporation] Offering up a textbook definition of “holy crap, time flies,” Black Sabbath’s swan song, 13, was released 13 years ago, on June 7th, 2013. In a curious move, …
If you’re just now catching up, well, we’re just now catching up. Seth Buttnam and I (plus one uninvited guest) are rounding up some of our favoritest grindcore (or grind-adjacent) releases of the past however many months, since we (read: …
[Album artwork by Truls Espedal] It’s 17 albums for Enslaved now, comprising a discography I find exceptionally challenging to wrap my arms around. What’s going on here? Does anyone else forget that the relatively rote and by-the-numbers Frost is actually …
In many cases, the general dearth of great thrash being made by any band that wasn’t formed in the 80s means even the most decent of bands get a moderate recommendation. Of course, the vast …
“Album Of The Day” is a new Last Rites Facebook feature we started recently whose purpose is quite straight-forward: highlight one album per day and say a few words about it. Understanding that not everyone …
Sometimes it’s good to begin with where you intend to end up: Messa’s Feast for Water is an unhurriedly brilliant album that overflows with truly remarkable songcraft and a consistently enthralling atmosphere. If you’d like …
I don’t normally prefer to talk about myself in reviews, but Diamonds & Rust is one of those features that affords the Last Rites blockheads an opportunity to get a little more personal while dredging …
FAST RITES: because sometimes brevity is fundamental. RÛR is the latest in a long line of one-man black metal bands out of Norway, this time the sole work of a man named C.L. However, the …
Splits can serve an array of purposes. In this case, the self-titled, 30-minute split between Rhode Island’s Sky Shadow Obelisk and Bangalore, India’s Djinn and Miskatonic worked as an introduction to both bands as I …
It’s no secret that the crew at Last Rites likes their black metal super castley. Spooky castles perched atop perilous mountaintops. Castles inhabited by tricksters, ghouls and maidens given over in service of the dark …
I won’t pretend to know what life in Ukraine is like. It’s been a country in constant turmoil; a once strong state that has been conquered, divided, and contested all while struggling to maintain its …
