Generally Impressed With Riffs
[Cover Artwork by Julia Proszowska] Something about the internet that only occurred to me recently is that it’s changed the way we think about death. Like just about everything else, the very notion of death has lost so much of …
[Cover artwork by The Blacksmith] I will freely admit that anonymity when it comes to art largely puzzles me, particularly as it relates to music. Aliased with some sort of elaborate costume? There’s potential there; who doesn’t love a little …
[Cover art by Larisa Brechun] With age, you begin to understand that genuine loss is not the haunting shadow you once thought. It isn’t a short-lived grief that disappears in a few days. Instead, it’s more than a shadow; it’s …
[Cover artwork by Ludwig Missal] Working from a classic build of vocalist/guitarist, bass player, and drummer, the appropriately minimalist design of Germany’s Midnight Prey works in their favor as they charge through seven songs of the kind of hybrid hard …
SKIP IT Believe it or not, the author of this article has not always been a beacon of handsome joy. The Isaac of the late 2000s was not a man of constant sorrow, per se, …
[Artwork by Wyrmrot] Coffin Rot’s newest release, Dreams of the Disturbed, is nothing short of a bowel-crushing, visceral death metal masterpiece that grabs hold of you from the first note and doesn’t let go …
[Cover art by Caroline Harrison] Unpredictability is a rather tricksy little hobbit of a thing in life. It’s awful when it comes to being in a bathroom, giving birth, or car maintenance. When it comes …
Welcome, all, to the thirstiest extreme metal album of 2024. Amsterdam’s Deathless Void straight up named their album The Voluptuous Fires of Sin, which I can only imagine is about the impure thoughts that went …
Howdy, dear readers. It’s time for our monthly review of the Last Rites staff’s listening habits—a little feature we call Staff Infections. Here’s hoping September finds you and yours in fine health and spirits, but …
Some things age gracefully, and get better with time. Wine… Cheese… Me… We can add Phoenix-based thrashers Flotsam & Jetsam to that list, especially now that they’re four albums into a third act that sees …
Wolfbrigade (formerly Wolfpack not to be associated with the atrociously hateful movement of the same name) just continue to pump out high-level d-beat hardcore punk rock that will get you angry, worked up, hot and …
Cover artwork by Eduardo Ver Papangu’s debut album, Holoceno, was a resounding success in 2021, even making that year’s Last Rites Combined Staff Top 25. Four longtime friends from João Pessoa, Brazil, had somehow found …
