Generally Impressed With Riffs
It’s a magical corner of the musical world where a band can combine an infectious nature with extreme oddness, and it’s in that corner that Idaho’s Seven Chains makes their home. Make no mistake about it, third album Swollen, In …
[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 …
I did not get the opportunity to review the latest Vektor, but I loved it. I love the whole idea of Death-meets-Voivod-meets-black-metal-graveling. In fact I think black metal graveling is almost built for tech-thrash. It just …
When writing up our favorite EPs of last year, I dubbed 2015 as “The Year of the EP.” It wasn’t a claim supported by deep historical research or context, but just a quick observation about …
The language of metal is filled with a finite amount of dark, excessively graphic and usually made up words. Thus, we have to clarify that we are discussing the Sacrificio from Spain. They are not …
Kicking things off with the theme to “Welcome Back Kotter” might seem strange, but there’s a warmth and familiarity in the tune that’s fitting as an opener to this most hallowed season. No, not the …
Two years ago, Martyrdöd’s Eldopp very rightly found its way into many a year-end list, including Last Rites’ staff-wide Top 25 and a top ten spot on my personal list, placings that were each rightfully …
December always sees the number of new releases considerably decreasing, and heavy hitters certainly dominated the release calendar in recent months. As the end of the year fast approaches, the LR staff’s focus will go toward …
I don’t generally get too excited about black metal. To me, the genre is too much about atmosphere, ideology, and screwing people out of money for rare, but entirely shitty recordings, and not enough about …
The last Sky Shadow Obelisk release, full length debut Beacon, was a deeply unsettling piece of music. The project’s past largely consisted of doom/death metal verging on funeral terrain, but that album greatly upped both …
