Generally Impressed With Riffs
[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 …
[Cover art by Per Spjøtvold] Want a fun way to acknowledge your own mortality? Think about how many years you’ve been listening to certain bands or albums. Of course, you, a distinguished devotee of this publication, surely engage in this practice, …
Because heavy metal bands change direction and because heavy metal fans stake whole pieces of themselves on the results, the Last Rites staffers have been sharing their thoughts on some of the transition albums that …
Remember Witchcraft? That band was all the rage in the middle of the last decade, and I thought Witchcraft’s retro-doom/rock was some pretty hot shit, myself. Sadly, nary a peep has been heard from Witchcraft …
Originally written by Erik Thomas Sjukdom (“disease”) is my first encounter with Sweden’s Lifelover, despite their four-album history, and a strange beast they are. While falling under the vast black metal umbrella, Lifelover is a …
Most of the time spent daydreaming, drifting and listening to heavy metal in my room as a youth found me in the illusionary role of a dynamic frontman, like Ronnie James Dio, Bruce Dickinson and …
Originally written by Jon Eardley Destruction is a band that most old timers will tell you hit their creative peak with 1988’s Release From Agony, and they’d in all likelihood say that almost everything released …
A band in transition can be a daunting prospect for fans — the results can just as easily be disastrous as transcendent. In Part One of this three-part Metalmorphoses feature, the Last Rites staff began …
Like you, the devout and steadfast metal fan, we at Last Rites take very seriously and personally our relationships with the bands we love. Invested heavily with emotion in the musical manifestations of our very identities, …
Forgotten early Swedish death metal band Toxaemia gets the double-disc deluxe treatment with Buried To Rise, but there’s a bit of a hitch – it’s the same disc twice, albeit in different forms. The first …
