And yet it’s also been an oddly familiar year in music. We’re still getting hot takes on COVID (and now Omicron) from musicians we don’t care about whose opinions we didn’t ask for. And magazines steeped in heavy metal tradition—like Forbes—are still treating us to their carefully curated year-end lists. You know, just in case we forgot about Deafheaven or Gojira.

So yeah, another stellar year in music. Seriously, though. I welcomed all of it. After all, who doesn’t need a little post-Lynch Dokken in their life? I certainly did—go get Church of Vinyl’s reissue of Erase the Slate. It’s great! And did I hear you say you liked the new Carcass? I am happy for you—check out Pharmacist’s Carnal Pollution EP, too! Oh, did you not get your fill of symphonic power metal? Treat yourself to Solarus’ A Dance with Tragedy. What about American power thrash? Gift your ears Project: Roenwolfe’s excellent Edge of Saturn.

This is true every year, but 2021 delivered a little something for everyone. The Last Rites Combined Staff Top 25 certainly reflected that. But I get the feeling that not everyone is so adventurous. And there’s a certain comfort in routine. Some may have even deluded themselves into thinking that they’ve listened to enough music to know what they like.

What I find most exciting, however, is finding enough time in the day to give just one surprise band a shot. It could be a friend’s recommendation. Maybe the cover art caught my eye. Or perhaps I am a little curious about what Brazilian prog sounds like. I know Lone Watie was—he clued myself and others into the, as he put it, ballsy experimentation of Papangu. Those moments of surprise interest often define the year in music for me. Last year it was Fires in the Distance and Hinayana—two American bands playing at times very Finnish sounding melodeath.

I haven’t quite decided yet which releases defined my 2021, from the surprising (A Hill to Die Upon; Tide Turns Eternal) to the not so surprising (Helloween; Gegrepen door de geest der Zielsontluiking). Significantly more big bands delivered in 2021 than I ever would have guessed—maybe that’s the defining theme. Regardless of the takeaway, it’s been another embarrassment of riches, and I am plenty happy being spoiled. So let’s get to the list . . .

HEADING FOR 20-11

20. Dungeon Serpent – World of Sorrows

World of Sorrows is relentless in its commitment to melodic death metal orthodoxy. And it’s that commitment that gives its author’s unitary and uncompromised vision life. Plus, this is a really fun, bludgeoning kind of melody. When you’re a death metal band getting disparate comparisons like The Chasm and At the Gates, you know you’re doing something right.

• Bandcamp

19. Eternity’s End – Embers of War

Eternity’s End did that thing where they riff. Then they riff some more. And keep riffing. It’s awesome. And kudos to Prosthetic for signing them and gifting us Eternity’s End vinyl. Now reissue the first two, please. We need those riffs on wax. As a wise man once said—not too long ago, in fact—“[w]e’re here because we love tickling the pleasure center with full-frontal shred[.]” These guys deliver that shred.

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18. Vaelmyst – Secrypts of the Egochasm

From German power shred to American neoclassical death metal shred, Vaelmyst’s Secrypts of the Egochasm comes in at #18. And this record flat out smokes. As a wise man once said—only slightly longer ago, in fact—“[i]t’s no exaggeration to say that Secrypts will rank as one of the year’s strongest death metal releases, and the fact that it’s coming from the debut full-length of a virtually unknown band is as impressive as it is exciting.” Total Dave Suzuki-style shredfest and I am here for it.

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17. Monolord – Your Time to Shine

Despite a confusing start that had me thinking this was Your Time to Shrine with a dead rabbit in a flower circle, I was quickly charmed by these five hypnotic songs. Though there’s hardly a shortage of fuzz and psychedelia in my collection, it’s been a while since I’ve been this enamored by all things low and slow. I am not sure why it took me this long to pick up on Monolord, but I am glad Your Time to Shine was my introduction.

• Bandcamp

16. Seth – La Morsure du Christ

Twenty-five years and five albums later, Seth releases its sixth and best album in La Morsure du Christ. With a contagious and fervent energy, the band confidently covers some undeniably dark but varied territory. For whatever reason, melodic black metal saw an upsurge in popularity this year. La Morsure was easily among the year’s best melodic black metal releases, particularly if you’d prefer yours with less synth. There’s some pomp, no doubt, but it’s a classy pomp and the symphonic elements befit the general ambience.

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15. Blazon Rite – Endless Halls of Golden Totem

Fun sword and sorcery trad metal with excellent leads is all the pitch I needed to get into Blazon Rite. There’s a simple pleasure in lying down on the couch at the end of a long work day to cozy up to a warm, inviting album like Endless Halls of Golden Totem. My appreciation for that impact grew exponentially, so it’s no surprise that this was one of my most listened to albums this year. Though I am listing this at 15, I have no doubt that in revisiting this list a year from now, I’ll be kicking myself for not ranking this just a bit higher.

• Bandcamp

14. Stormkeep – Tales of Othertime

Tales is about as complete a package as one could ever hope to find in modern symphonic black metal. Everything from the tabletop RPG cover art to the sharp production is top class. Of course, none of this would matter if the music weren’t good. Fortunately for us, the music is pretty darn terrific. And inspirational, too. Pretty sure that 1990s melodic black metal binge I went on shortly after listening to this wasn’t a coincidence. Quick note: That early Old Man’s Child stuff absolutely ruled. OMC reference aside, I know I wasn’t alone in falling pretty hard and quick for this.

• Bandcamp

13. Wheel – Preserved in Time

I am sure I am not alone in being a recent convert to Wheel but I am a bit ashamed nonetheless-Preserved in Time is a mammoth record and these guys have apparently been selling their epic doom wares for over ten years. The fact that this album is showing up on more than a few year-end lists proves that it’s never too late to course correct. As one of those course correctors, I can say with the utmost confidence that vocalist Arkadius Kurek is a primary draw. The Patrick Walker meets Albert Witchfinder vibe, if not tone, colors the entirety of the record and compliments the emotive riffs perfectly.

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12. Mental Cruelty – A Hill to Die Upon

Outside of Despised Icon and the odd newer band like Brand of Sacrifice, most deathcore escapes me. But Mental Cruelty’s riff-driven take on brutal blackened deathcore proved too tempting to ignore. This is fun, grandiose, and dense stuff. The fun part of the equation belies the complexity of the arrangements. There’s an elasticity to A Hill to Die Upon that made peeling back the layers with repeated listens a challenge that I looked forward to. This, for me, was the surprise of the year.

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11. Iron Maiden – Senjutsu

I want my heroes to succeed but I won’t excuse their missteps. The Book of Souls was neither a misstep nor a success, lying somewhere in between. It was clear from the release of “The Writing on the Wall” that Senjutsu was likely to be a different animal entirely. Maiden is still very much in its proggier era but the songs here are simply more compelling—better riffs and with higher peaks and fewer valleys. Admittedly, they could do with some editing. And there’s some amount of confirmation bias going on, despite Maiden objectively being the best band ever. Yet there’s still no substitute. Need a Maiden fix? Listen to Maiden. You’re only as good as your options, and Senjutsu is Maiden in fine form. I am satisfied. Now let’s hear this stuff live in 2022.

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• Official Website

HEADING FOR TOP TEN

10. Silver Talon – Decadence and Decay

Though I listened to and liked Silver Talon’s Becoming a Demon EP in 2018, I had long forgotten just how similar the band’s vocalist sounds to Nevermore’s Warrel Dane. So it was more than a little surprising to hear Decadence and Decay the first time.

After the initial shock wore off, I started to appreciate the album less as a Nevermore gap-filler and more as its own contribution to the small but expanding USPM scene. The fine line Silver Talon walks between heavy, prog, and power metal is a unique one not easily navigated. Yet the band sounds more confident here, on their full-length debut, than they have a right to be.

As a talented scribe once wrote of Decadence and Decay, “One would be hard-pressed to find this blend of modern rhythm guitar, neoclassical leads, and proggy synth anywhere else.” The cinematic quality to the songwriting delivers those seemingly disparate layers in epic fashion.

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9. Cannibal Corpse – Violence Unimagined

It took all of 3 or 4 songs to recognize that Erik Rutan and Cannibal Corpse are a winning combo. Not that there was ever a reason to think otherwise. But aside from Vile and maybe The Bleeding, there hasn’t been another album representative of as much change—though Kill was the first without Jack Owen, Rob Barrett had rejoined the fold. Last Rites’ own Spencer dissected this change incredibly well in his review. So, for me anyway, there was a pre-release excitement unique to Violence Unimagined. I expected the intensity level to go from 110 to 200%. And I expected Corpsegrinder to sound appropriately mental over some Rutan riffage.

All of the above proved true, of course, but what I didn’t expect was for the songwriting to be this tight. There are hypnotic bangers (“Slowly Sawn,” “Follow the Blood,” and “Cerements of the Flayed”). There are ripping bangers (“Ritual Annihilation,” “Inhumane Harvest,” and “Murderous Rampage”). And there are other songs that just flat out rule (“Surround, Kill, Devour” and “Bound and Burned”). I read a comment somewhere that this is their best album since Kill. That seems about right.

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8. Pharaoh – The Powers That Be

Very few bands have enjoyed as much universal praise and love among the writers at Last Rites and its previous iterations as Pharaoh. And for good reason. So it goes without saying that after nine years sans Pharaoh, most at Last Rites had a minor heart attack when The Powers That Be was first announced. Though I attempted to convince myself long ago that anything after Be Gone was gravy, I got greedy after Bury the Light. Truth be told, against my better judgment, I was maximum-level hyped about The Powers That Be—against my better judgment not because it wasn’t going to be great, but because I really didn’t want to set this up for failure in my mind.

Fortunately, our collective patience was rewarded. The Powers That Be is, indeed, Pharaoh being Pharaoh for over 40 minutes on record, which is to say that it is over 40 minutes of USPM awesomeness. “Freedom” is the catchier, more rock-oriented and lyrically-grounded tune with a hummable chorus. “Lost in the Waves” is the harder-edged, more fantasy-based and emotive track. “Dying Sun” is the journey within a song. And “Will We Rise” and “Ride Us to Hell” are the barn burners.

Pharaoh’s commitment to song diversity has always been rock solid, and that doesn’t change here. What does change, or at least shift slightly, is the way in which the band uses the tense political climate to fuel its lyrical point-of-view. And while it’s less overt and more metaphoric, it’s noticeable enough to register as different. I really enjoyed that difference—it felt personal and genuine and it drew me in as a listener in a way that I wasn’t expecting.

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7. Wolves in the Throne Room – Primordial Arcana

Primordial Arcana sounds like Wolves in the Throne Room more clearly expressing everything I’ve come to love about them but in a distilled form. There are as many disadvantages to that as there are benefits—the confidence with which the band approaches the aesthetic makes all the difference. Despite the occasional feeling that there’s too much self-editing, the songs themselves are punchier and more immediately impactful. This comes at the sacrifice of the slow burn—and I am not suggesting Primordial Arcana is remotely close to the best album from the band—but I don’t think songs such as “Through Eternal Fields” and “Primal Chasm (Gift of Fire)” would sound quite as striking otherwise.

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6. Warrior Path – The Mad King

That I liked but didn’t love Warrior Path’s debut album should explain why I am as surprised as you likely are to see The Mad King at my number six spot this year. The self-titled, 2019 release showed plenty of promise—all the pieces were there—but it ultimately felt too bloated and repetitive to be one of the year’s stronger albums. Not true of The Mad King.

Warrior Path’s heavy/power hybrid sound is largely the same, but the pacing here is much improved over the debut. Though Yannis Papadopoulos was impressive in his own right, and hardly the reason why the first record fell a little flat for me, it doesn’t hurt that The Mad King features one Daniel Heiman on vocals. Not only does his tone perfectly compliment the pace here, but he really knows how to make these choruses stick.

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5. Epica – Omega

Like every Epica release—as carefully orchestrated as they are—Omega is dense. As a fan, peeling back the layers with repeated listens is part of the fun. But the nods to the band’s earlier, more purely orchestral arrangements on The Phantom Agony and Consign to Oblivion were obvious and really sit this one apart from everything since The Divine Conspiracy.

Admittedly, I am awfully fond of this band for reasons I can’t even describe all that well. Simone Simons’ vocals are, of course, a principal selling point. And Simons sounds as beautiful here as she usually does. But what separates this release from the last few is the occasional infusion of the same gothic orchestral vibe we first heard 18 years ago. Omega feels personal, and as listeners invested in the life of bands and the art they produce, that matters. There’s something, not nostalgic, but youthful about Omega that makes the nods to an earlier sound feel less vintage and more inspired. It shares that quality with the above-mentioned Helloween hydra.

• Official Website

4. Dream Unending – Tide Turns Eternal

There’s a heavy but ethereal quality to Tide Turns Eternal that feels like an announcement of sorts. It’s done so confidently, so seemingly effortlessly, that it must be a statement. Of what, I am not sure. And, don’t get me wrong, Tomb Mold is a good band. But Tomb Mold is one good band of many good bands playing a fairly similar style of death metal. There aren’t a ton of Anathema-inspired bands playing doom/death dripped in this much atmosphere (sidenote: that solo at 6:00 in “Adorned in Lies” is something else, right?). All of this is to say that I never imagined that someone from Tomb Mold (guitarist Derrick Vella) would have a side project that sounds like this.

That Dream Unending’s Tide Turns Eternal was a mid-November release and made it to the top 5 of Last Rites’ Combined Staff Top 25 speaks to its immediate impact. There’s an almost cinematic, narrative quality to it that feels strangely hypnotic. The repeated appearance of certain riffs over several tracks is not dissimilar to the use of leitmotif in film music, and that parallel contributes in part to said hypnotism. Intentional or not, that repetition gives the album a uniformity that draws listeners in and allows for that immediate connection.

If your experience with Tide Turn Eternals is anything like mine, you’ll leave the record thinking 45 minutes is far too short. But it’s probably about perfect. And all will be forgiven if we see, at the very least, an EP in 2022.

• Bandcamp

3. Helloween – Helloween

I’ll spare you a ton of Helloween blurbing because this release has been covered better by others here. But this self-titled, bridging of worlds type deal met and even exceeded the highest of expectations.

The evidence seems to suggest that Helloween took a “best of all eras” approach. But the album feels less calculated and more like the concerted effort of individuals who genuinely wanted to (and succeeded in) bottling some of the magic that drew fans to Walls of Jericho, Keeper of the Seven Keys, and Master of the Rings. Helloween, the album, may never be on par with the former two, simply due to the historical importance of those two albums in the early development of power metal, but it certainly ranks among the band’s best.

• Last Rites Review
• Official Website

2. Herzel – Le Deniere Rempart

Some things transcend language. Namely, Herzel’s passion for good old-fashioned and epic heavy metal and their insanely impressive ability to harness that passion into recording the six stellar songs that appear on Le Dernier Rempart.

I can’t speak for others, but the relative infancy of the band has at least something to do with the impact this album made on me, at least initially. Le Dernier Rempart sounds like a confident band playing at its peak. Yet it might as well have dropped from the sky given how blindly I went into the first listen. The album is 36 minutes of riff-driven, often falsetto’d bliss, with nary a misstep. Even the French Celtic lore translates well in tone, despite my not understanding much of any of it.

Outside of Tide Turns Eternal and A Hill to Die Upon, there really wasn’t another record that surprised me quite like this one in 2021. It’s a charmer.

• Last Rites Review
• Bandcamp

1. Fluisteraars – Gegrepen door de Geest der Zielsontluiking

I was fairly certain just a year ago that nothing could top Fluisteraars’ Bloem. But Fluisteraars’ Gegrepen door de Geest der Zielsontluiking announced itself and, well, that earlier proclamation suddenly seems less true.

Fluisteraars have the unique ability to create songs that sound at once cerebral and primal, melodic and dissonant. It’s not so much a “let’s capture all emotions” thing as a “let’s see where this ride takes us” thing. Amazingly, despite that approach, which sounds as progressive in practice as it does on paper, the band has never not sounded black metal. It’s the gut of the band, seemingly its driving force.

Though the ethos of the band seems grounded in the idea that they’re not wedded to any scene or sound—and that seems largely irrefutable—black metal’s rawness is the roux from which they create. That’s never been truer than on Gegrepen, which pulls more from psychedelia than even Bloem but often does so over a layer of above-mentioned rawness. The force of the album’s melodic peaks are built on the aforementioned interstitial dissonance, and they hit that much harder because of it. It’s that duality that makes Fluisteraars what it is, and the band channels that superbly on Gegrepen door de Geest der Zielsontluiking.

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The Best EPs in 2021 (According to Me)

5. Gaahls Wyrd – The Humming Mountain

The Humming Mountain feels complete—less extended play, and more short act with a beginning, middle, and end all its own. So while a few of these songs are apparently rearranged versions of songs written for the debut full-length that didn’t quite make the final product, the EP itself is distinct in sound, feeling less afraid of the quiet moments and more inclined to fill them with melancholia. There’s a strange comfort in that. And something tells me I’ll be turning to The Humming Mountain often this winter.

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• Bandcamp

4. Dialith – Atrophy

There aren’t many symphonic metal bands as fully engaged in the metal part of the equation as Dialith, which makes something like Atrophy all the more vital. The band’s full-length debut, Extinction Six, was an unexpected gem in 2019, so the two-year wait for this little EP felt particularly painful. Fortunately, Atrophy finds the band largely picking up where they left off on Extinction Six—playing intense, orchestral, lush, heavy, and infectious symphonic metal.

What really set Dialith apart from its peers two years ago was its near equal focus on operatic vocals, smooth synth, and sweet, heavy riffs. None of that has changed here. Though “Ignite the Sky” is perhaps less serious and more pomp than anything heard on Extinction Six, at its core it still sounds like an extension of the band’s sound. I am curious to hear if that’s something they explore in the future. And the rest remains, to our good fortune, entirely faithful to Extinction Six. Terrific tide me over, but please don’t make us wait too long for a follow-up.

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3. Witch Vomit – Abhorrent Rapture

As I wrote not long ago, everything we loved about Witch Vomit’s last full-length, Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave, is present and improved in this condensed form. The grooves dig just a bit deeper (“Necrometamorphosis”). The meaty, distorted riffs hit slightly harder (“Abhorrent Rapture”). The gurgles are gooier (“Purulent Burial Mound”). And the thrashy solos and tempo changes feel smoother (“Funeral Purgation”). Abhorrent Rapture is Witch Vomit nearly perfecting an already well-developed sound.

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2. Fierce Deity – Power Wisdom Courage

The talented vocalist (and guitarist and bass and keyboard player) behind Australia’s Fierce Deity, one Jonathan Barwick (ex-Taberah), describes the band as “stoner power metal.” Or at least the band’s Bandcamp profile does. And while that’s probably truer of the band’s earlier singles, it isn’t necessarily inaccurate as applied to this EP, Power Wisdom Courage. But I think we can settle on “fun.”

Just give “Wisdom” a whirl. Seriously. That transition from super synth to heavy groove to the point where the vocals kick in is goosebump-inducing gloriousness. I know I’ve played it more than a handful of times in the car on a Friday afternoon.

It’s not all 1980s motivational montage type stuff, either. There’s meat on these bones, and the seemingly strange synth, power, and groove combo somehow works. Thank you, Mr. Barwick.

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Cirith Ungol – Half Past Human

Last Rites’ love for all things Cirith Ungol is as well-documented as it is well-deserved. The fact that the site collectively voted Half Past Human as 2021’s Best EP should come as no surprise. As our own Captain put it, “the Cirith Ungol rejuvenation still has an abundance of vigor pumping at its crux, and not even tromping out a handful of 40+ year-old songs penned during a period before the band established their footing can stand in the way of these guys delivering a victory that’s every bit as worthy of your attention as the gems that landed before 2021.”

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The post Best of 2021 – Chris C: It’s Been A Year appeared first on Last Rites.

MENTAL CRUELTY ‒ A HILL TO DIE UPON

released May 28; Unique Leader Records

Allow me to briefly recap my initial reactions to the first few minutes of Mental Cruelty’s new album:

The minute-long intro track “Avgang” plays
“Mmmkay this is a pretty standard acoustic-focused intro; fairly unremarkable so far.”

“Ultima Hypocrita” launches out of the gates with pure fire
“Oh hello! This is some very slick and triumphant black metal riffage that I wasn’t expecting from a death metal band.”

The music cuts down to just some dramatic synths and a gloriously ignorant guitar riff hits
“HOLY SHIT!!! This song is about to go OFF!”

The vocals roar alone and the song drops into pure knuckle-dragging glory
“YASSSSS QUEEN!”

The song opens back up and a chorus kicks off with a layered, clean choral-style singing of the word “Satanas”
“Hold my beer, I need to go punch God in the face!”

A Hill to Die Upon so perfectly fuses the most ignorantly heavy death metal with the dramatic triumph of black metal that listening to it will bestow you with enough infernal might to punch through the crust of the Earth and drag up hordes of demons to help you destroy every facet of heaven. If the chugging bouncy monster of a riff in “King Ov Fire” doesn’t make you feel like you could square up against Mike Tyson, I’m not convinced you really like heavy music.

Did I mention the glorious leads? They avoid just being shred-fests and are actually played with a sense of feeling that perfectly matches the dramatic flare of the rest of the music. The songs muscled into your ears have no business being this stupidly heavy while pulling off such adept blackened drama. This is the aural equivalent of encountering a caveman in a tuxedo who can perfectly recite from memory a 15-item specials menu made entirely of items harvested from a saber-toothed tiger he mauled to death with his bare hands a few moments earlier.

The only mental cruelty you’ll suffer is that of regret if you don’t hit play on one of the heaviest albums of the year. [SPENCER HOTZ]

ORDEN OGAN ‒ FINAL DAYS

released March 12; AFM Records and Fono Ltd.

A band simply doesn’t exist successfully as long as Orden Ogan has without committing to an aesthetic. In addition to Blind Guardian-esque vocal layering, saccharine choruses, and meaty riffs, Orden Ogan’s aesthetic includes committing like hell to a narrative concept. And I can forgive the German quintet for going Wild West with dusty jackets and cowboy hats in “Gunman” and vaqueros in “Fields of Sorrow,” but I am not as forgiving of whatever that is on the cover of Final Days.

Despite the objectively horrendous art, the music holds up. Whereas Isuffered from far too many mid-paced songs, Final Days finds Orden Ogan diversifying ever so slightly. Ballads are still not the band’s strong suit—just listen to “Alone in the Dark,” a dud orchestrated by Rhapsody of Fire’s Alex Staropoli that features the wasted talents of Brothers of Metal’s Ylva Eriksson—but the faster songs such as “Interstellar” (featuring an excellent Gus G. guitar solo) and “Inferno,” which eclipse most everything from Gunmen. Orden Ogan’s sound may be well-established, but the band proves here that they can play with the formula without compromising the memorability at the heart of their appeal.

The digital apocalypse theme works insofar as it gives the songs some sort of lyrical uniformity, but if there’s a story here I am not sure I care enough to follow it. Rather, riffs are the band’s bread and butter, and with song such as the aforementioned “Interstellar” and “Inferno,” along with “Black Hole” and “Heart of the Android,” Final Days represents a notable step up from Gunmen. [CHRIS C]

INCINERATE ‒ BACK TO REALITY

March 6; Dead by Dawn Records

Heavy metal music that is generally associated with The Mosh Pit can typically be split into two categories: metal that panders to the pit (booooo), and metal that commands the pit (yesssssss). The former is made up of bands that are only there to get people moving their butts whether or not anyone remembers the music after the show; think of the more generic deathcore and pizza thrash as examples. Metal that commands a pit is music so tight and dominant that even if you’d never heard a note before the band hit the stage (or before you hit play on an album), you’re still overcome by Involuntary Bushwhacker Convulsing (copyright pending).

On sophomore album Back to Reality, Belgium’s Incinerate plays music that likely commands quite a lot of sweaty metalhead bodies moving in a violent blur. Their pummeling death/thrash formula draws on some equally pit-friendly influences, key among them a whole bunch of Demolition Hammer and Beneath/Arise-era Sepultura with bits of heftier thrash like Sacrifice and Forbidden (minus the vocals of the latter). But they make it their own with extremely tight and efficient songs (9 in 35 minutes) and some very beastly performances. From the moment the album’s title is first barked in isolation in the opener, this record is nonstop kickassery.

Every performance is huge, but the drumming goes above and beyond the album’s typical level of above and beyond. From the great mid-paced ride cymbal passages and roto toms to all the timely usage of double kick patterns and the big bass drum/cymbal mute hits, Incinerate’s impact always starts with Michael Paulus’s work behind the kit. On top of that comes the delightfully rumbling bass, riffs that range from straight thrashing patterns to quick harmonies and brutal chugs, the occasional shreddy solo, and Nils Pervé’s gruff vocal personality (complete with the occasional touch of fun ESL pronunciation). Each element has presence, and the already sleek songs are elevated because of it. One gets the sense that each member of this trio elevates the other during songwriting and jam sessions and that they relish every last moment.

Shows aren’t quite back in full force yet, so in the meantime clear your furniture, play Back to Reality loudly, and make a pit of one at home. [ZACH DUVALL]

SICKRECY ‒ FIRST WORLD ANXIETY

released June 4; Spikerot Records

Psssst, hey, kid. Wanna know a sickret?

Grindcore is pretty awesome. Pass it on.

Okay, so maybe that’s not much of a sickret, really. If you’re here, scrolling through these hallowed pages, chances are you’re quite aware of it, and you’re at least partly hip to the wonders of the loud, the fast, and the ugly. (If you’re not, you should be.) Sickrecy is a new trio from the grand grind hinterlands of Sweden, a new project very rooted in classic grindcore and featuring Martin Eriksson and Marcus Dahl from death/crusters World In Ruins and Adde Mitroulis from the ever-dependable Birdflesh, and First World Anxiety is their first release. Most importantly, it’s a rock-solid little ripper, six songs in 17 minutes, which is positively epic by grindcore standards.

Blending the crustiness and the death metal influence from World In Ruins with the vicious death/grind of Birdflesh, First World Anxiety is the sum of its parts, eschewing the latter band’s penchant for silliness in favor of the more traditional sociopolitical grindcore themes. But really what matters here is twofold: the riffs, and the rage. The former come in the expected forms, sometimes tremolo-picked, sometimes chunky and thrashing, and yet always carving, hooking into the flesh with sharpened claws. The latter is relentless, be it directed in furious blastbeating or in groovier grinding like bits of the title track or the bulldozer drive of “Banner Of Contempt.”

Overall, First World Anxiety is a pretty straightforward release, but that’s not to sell it short in any way — it may not be boundary-pushing, but it definitely get its point across, and sometimes a good ass-kicking is all you really need.

Grindcore is pretty awesome.  [ANDREW EDMUNDS]

CULT OF LUNA ‒ THE RAGING RIVER

released February 5; Red Creek Records

Would this be an awkward time to admit I’m new to Cult of Luna? Of course I knew of them—I’ve known of them essentially since day one—but I’m the fellow who, apart from the exceptional Neurosis, skipped out on the entirety of the atmospheric sludge explosion that occurred throughout the early 2000s, so no CoL, Isis, The Ocean, Mouth of the Architect, etc. I don’t have any impressive explanations for this malfeasance, particularly given my affinity for post-rock, but I mostly attach it to a general aversion to the characteristic vocal style ascribed to the off-shoot. In truth, that shouty / distraught sort of delivery remains the largest obstacle for me today, but a chance encounter with 2019’s A Dawn to Fear that quickly turned into a bonafide infatuation finally put that discrimination to rest, at least with regard to Cult of Luna. Since then, it’s been smooth (but noticeably emotional) sailing for me and the band, and I now count myself as a notably unpunctual fan of Cult of Luna, thanks largely to something they did in year 20 of their storied career.

Here’s the thing about that A Dawn to Fear release from 2019: It’s a fucking beast of a record—a perfect amalgam of intensity and elegance, and of crushing the soul while also lifting the spirits at the very next bend. Perhaps it doesn’t reach quite the same heights for those who’ve been Cult of Luna fans for two decades and have spent years upon years returning to imposing records such as Somewhere Along the Highway and Vertikal, but one gets the strong impression that this is one of those bands that typically finds ways to release varying shades of greatness extremely systematically, so every release is treated with pronounced enthusiasm.

Wait… Right? Are people still getting excited about atmospheric sludge / post-hardcore / progressive whatever-the-hell? Not only did Last Rites miss out on covering The Raging River earlier this year, but we managed to skip A Dawn to Fear back in 2019 to boot. Shame on you, Last Rites. Shame on you. In our defense, however, that particular record seemed fairly overlooked by a number of publications. Case in point, consider the following stack of notable outlets that spend perhaps a little less time mining the über underground as compared to Last Rites and whether or not A Dawn to Fear—a very good record by a band that’s spent years being lauded by endless publications—managed to hit their Best Of 2019 lists:

Rolling Stone: nope
Pitchfork: nope
Treble: nope
Revolver: nope
Pop Matters: nope
Stereogum: nope
Decibel: nope
Kerrang: no. 43/50

Also, please keep the following in mind: Many of those same publications (including Last Rites) found it in their hearts to hail Inter Arma’s Sulphur English from that very same year, so scrap any notions that people have suddenly fallen out of love with the entirety of atmospheric sludge / post-whatever. The only feasible answer relates to people being too…comfortable (?) with Cult of Luna releasing high-quality atmospheric post-hardcore, and they perhaps wish the band would spend more time pushing the envelope. Solid argument—people love backing the rookies and underdogs, and if you’ve spent years head-over-heels in love with albums like Salvation and Eternal Kingdom, can you really expect to be blown away by releases a decade-plus later that continue to spin fabric from a very similar loom, even if the quality is clearly still there?

Yes. The answer to that question is yes. It should be yes. But sometimes it takes a fair bit of time to realize it, or maybe you do so…more privately. You know, one of those “Hello, old friend. Come in and join me for a brandy by the fire, just the two of us” scenarios where the love literally goes without saying.

Of course, this is all an incredibly round about way of stating the truth that The Raging River is a wonderful EP very deserving of celebration by new and old fans alike. Similar to the LP that preceded it, Cult of Luna’s long proven proficiency for underscoring intensity and elegance back and forth and hither and thither survives as the dominant force, but it’s magnified even further by the most recent development to the CoL sound: keyboards that add a significant (and significantly wonderful) new layer to the soul crushing and spirit lifting. The modern face of the band feels heavier compared to, say, the Eternal Kingdom years, but there’s still well enough somber, reflective guitar work woven into the fabric here—particularly with regard to opener “Three Bridges” and throughout “I Remember”—to pacify the fans of their more solemn face as well. And netting the incredible Mark Lanegan (ex-Screaming Trees) for a quiet interlude was certainly a spectacular achievement that pushes the overall righteousness directly over the edge.

It’s taken a long 20 years to get to here, but I finally count Cult of Luna amongst the ever-growing list of bands I will happily follow ’til the end. And lucky for us, The Raging River confirms that there’s still plenty left in the Luna tank. [CAPTAIN]

The post Missing Pieces: The Best Of What We Missed In 2021 So Far, Volume 3 appeared first on Last Rites.

Sumerian’s latest offering to the Summer Slaughter T…

Wait, what? They’re not? And they aren’t?

Well, there goes the only two reasons for this to exist. France’s Deep in Hate play the kind of deathcore that just oozes “stereotype.” Chronicles of Oblivion has everything the sixteen-year-old connoisseur of lousy music desires. Drums so triggered they sound like INXS with a double kick? Check. (The snare sounds like a goddamn hand clapping.) Vocals layered so many times the band would need five singers to pull this off convincingly live? Quintuple check. 808 bass drops? You know it! Of course they would; how else would the crowd know when one of the seventy-five million breakdowns are coming? It’s about the consumer, dont’cha know.

Did I mention how incredibly fake the drums sound yet? “The Cattle Procession” does that djent-pattern-minus-djent-riffwork stutter-step double bass thing that sounds about as cool as… well, 808 bass drops. It sounds like sour shit in a tin can is what I’m getting at. Christ, the cymbals even stop at timed intervals. It’s truly horrifying how soulless an affair this is. It’s like the worst Benighted has to offer without any of the charm.

Try not to piss yourself laughing when the stick twirl happensAnd it only gets less interesting. “Altars of Lies” is so ridiculously over-the-top technical that the first half of the song sounds like an arpeggio competition where the only winner is the stop button. It’s like Deep in Hate just heard Epitaph for the first time and were all “fuck, dudes, we could do that shit! But let’s make sure the second half of the song is one continuous breakdown. We’ve got kids to feed. Sacre bleu!”

I shit you not, I could easily go on for two thousand more words hating on this. Instead, I offer a plea for peace: Bands, stop making this fucking album. Let’s pledge to let Deep in Hate make the last plastic deathcore snoozefest and cut our losses. It’s not worth it, guys and gals.

But just in case this prayer falls silent, protect your ears and avoid this monstrosity like it has a mustache and hangs out by the middle school, because that’s the target audience.

The post Deep In Hate – Chronicles Of Oblivion Review appeared first on Last Rites.

When I began work as Metal Director at WRUV in 2005, I was reintroducing myself to the genre I fell in love with, and had much ground to cover. Another girl named Jeneen was starting, and we both reviewed albums for a while. Because of the influx, I’d pay more attention to stuff she reviewed positively, so I immersed in 3 Inches of Blood early on, yet latched onto neither Cryptopsy nor Strapping Young Lad on first pass. (Hey, Neener — if you’re reading this, remember when you called SYL “standard heavy metal”? That shit is hilarious!)

I’ve kept an eye on all those Canucks over the years. Dev kept me pretty happy across most projects; 3IOB has never let me down; Cryptopsy… well… not so much. When The Unspoken King dropped, I admittedly had little emotional investment in the band, and even though I found that album largely unremarkable, my first full in-review joke formed (so it’s not all bad):

“Clean vox are to Cryptopsy what Jar-Jar Binks is to the Star Wars saga: out of place, a hindrance to the greater work, and worse for being included”.

The band has never lost their Flo, but their hustle remains dubious. Don’t get me wrong: Mr. Mounier feels truly tireless and, as the sole consistent member of Cryptopsy, he always seems to step it up in the performance department; man, that last minute of “Ominous” is pure devastation. But the vocals typically put me off. I like Lord Worm and all, especially as a lyricist, but was mostly floored by his apparent depravity over raw talent, something that felt lost on all who followed in his wake. DiSalvo lacked the spark to correctly color interesting albums like Whisper Supremacy, and while LaCroix did crawl toward Worm territory, he never hung around long enough for proper studio recordings.

So for reals, was anyone actually moved by Matt McGachy’s previous performance? Yeah, I know he was irksome and all, but really, were you angry (…or inexplicably stoked)? I imagine old-school fans of the band would likely at this point have thrown up their hands and / or indifferently shrugged. However, much more was awry last time, and let it not go unspoken that the return of longtime guitarist Jon Levasseur is critical — much less so is the missing keyboardist chick who only stuck for a hot minute.

You wanna fucking quibble? Let’s go: The real killer here is the loss of 15-year anchor in bassist Éric Langlois; he could positively punch through the maelstrom. Neuraxis fingerer Olivier Pinard is a good successor, but he often sounds like he’s fighting to keep up. Though there are moments in this new album where he distinguishes — like about one minute into “Red-Skinned Scapegoat”, or across opening barnburner “Two-Pound Torch”. I’m anxious to see him perform live, because I bet the 22-year-old buck can hold his own.

Lyrically, I was back-and-forth on this eponymous release, sometimes literally. Both the first and third tracks have their protagonists die by hanging, albeit under totally different circumstances. In fact, the album plumbs the depths of their homeland’s history — something all bands should explore. And since you really can’t understand much of what McGachy is saying, it’s worth delving into these tales of murder, betrayal, alien abduction, mythological creatures, and beyond. It’s easy to venture that they are not only redefining Cryptopsy as a band, but also outlining origins and connecting back to their heritage; this is who they are.

Cryptopsy is still a bit bizarre (ahem: elevator music in a song that’s kindasorta about draft dodgers), and finally finding its feet after stumbling around for a decade. While this may not be their best album, it’s a vast improvement. Remember how Death Magnetic relatively sated after a long line of Metallica misfires? It feels like that. Shoot, maybe Cryptopsy can stay that course and on their next album take a nosedive with Leonard Cohen.

The post Cryptopsy – Cryptopsy Review appeared first on Last Rites.

In 2012, deathcore is basically dead. For some, this is cause for celebration. Those that bristled at scenester poseurs occupying the opening slots of every other death metal gig can relax a bit. At long last, basketball shorts and slam riffs have gotten the “Sandblasted Skin” treatment.

But, in hindsight, the much-maligned sub-subgenre wasn’t the abominable plague that it was originally perceived to be. Someone had to construct a bridge between the melodeath-aping strain of metalcore and actual death metal, and deathcore provided a navigable path for hordes of young ‘heads searching for visceral legitimacy.

For the actual purveyors of deathcore, however, the path to their own legitimacy has been tough to traverse. Following Job For A Cowboy‘s lead, these bands have started to trim the gimmicky tropes with the hope of morphing into mature DM squads. There are two problems with this:

1) Bands that totally shirk the deathcore conventions are wading into shark-filled waters. There’s a glut of wicked-ass death at our fingertips, from the recently exhumed Exhumed to Willowtip‘s trepanation trifecta of Ulcerate, Gigan, and Desecravity. Real DM fans aren’t going to flock to reformed trend-hoppers if the rallying cry is a merely a muttered, “Hey, man, they’re really not that bad anymore.”

2) If these bands still cling to the thick-skulled brodown conventions of deathcore in the transitional process, they’re just going to have to deal with the fact that Benighted is already way, way fucking better than they are.

And so we arrive at Rose Funeral, who, faced with this scenario, are basically fucked. They aren’t very good at writing songs (the standard formula on Gates of Punishment: Triggered blasty part —-> weedily lead guitar thing —-> bridge —-> 808 drop —-> ultra-telegraphed THIS IS THE HEAVY PART NOW breakdown). Their attempts at melodic experimentation are, despite some noble efforts, consistently marred by leftover deathcore trappings, e.g. refrains of “Kill! Kill! I want to kill!” and a patent rejection of legitimate rhythm guitar riffs.

Gates of Punishment is an absolute mess, an album that comes off less like a labor of love and more like an act of vanity. In an attempt to prove themselves as adults with a vision, they hired an opera singer for a guest spot, but diminished her classiness in favor of their own tackiness. (It sounds like she randomly recorded her parts from her living room, and the band pasted it between some plastic blastbeats and a lackluster breakdown just for the fuck of it.) Elsewhere, synthetic symphonics are tossed about randomly, attempting to perpetuate the illusion of “artistic growth.”

To gain death metal cred, they called Steve Tucker to growl along to “False Divine,” but were too busy turning all knobs to eleven to toss him a spotlight. (If you want to hear Steve Tucker, just buy the damn Nader Sadek album and be done with it.)

The actual meat of the album is simultaneously simplistic and overbearing, with an over-reliance on trendy production techniques—turn everything up!—and ineffective, overactive drumming.

So, can an album like Gates of Punishment be viewed as a microcosm for the decline of deathcore as a whole? Not really. It’s barely consequential on its own merits, and therefore has little relevance as a manufactured metaphor. However, this is definitely a product of a generation that constantly seeks adulation and acceptance, yet can’t decide when and how to actually grow the fuck up. Rose Funeral is fumbling to get into their big-boy pants, but Gates of Punishment is the just sound of foreskin getting caught in the zipper.

The post Rose Funeral – Gates of Punishment Review appeared first on Last Rites.

Another band attempting to cross-pollinate deathcore and modern tech death, As You Drown pulls off this union a lot more smoothly than many bands I’ve heard. Rat King takes the chest-pounding energy of deathcore and places it in a more varied, digestible context, and the end result is a very solid outing that should satisfy anyone with a taste for this style of metal.

What stands out most about Rat King is the seamless flow of the compositions. While a lot of deathcore suffers from overly jumpy, formulaic songwriting (blast, breakdown, blast, repeat), As You Drown favors a primarily groove-oriented attack that mostly avoids unnecessary leaps in tone and tempo. There’s still plenty of blasts and intense velocity, but the focus mostly lies in the intricacy of the riffs and synchronization with the drums – a refreshing turn from this style’s common emphasis on pure speed and brutality. While the music is highly polished and technical, you get the sense that As You Drown is more interested in crafting good songs than impressing you or inspiring frantic moshing – though both of these things are likely to happen anyway.

The band’s riffing repertoire follows the expected standards for this kind of extreme metal, but again, it’s the execution and timing that really counts here. As You Drown’s smooth, Middle Eastern-tinged melodies are well written and often supplemented with subtle harmonics and palm-mutes that lend a sense of craftsmanship and catchiness to the songs. But it’s primarily the technical breakdowns that really got my attention. Rather than leave lots of open space between the chords, the band creates dense and multifaceted rhythms that are ultimately way more ferocious and interesting – the choppy mid-song break in “Slaves to the Kingdom of Fear” is titanic, as is the lumbering series of clusterfucks that constitute “The Nothing.”

As You Drown falters a bit during some of the blasting sections, however. The blastbeats themselves often don’t feel very intense, and things sound awkward when the band tries to layer a chugging riff atop a blasting undercurrent, Decapitated-style (“Rabid Wolves In Sheep’s Clothing). The vocals are similarly ineffectual. The hoarse, gruff growls and shouts are rather thin production-wise and often feel somewhat flat and lifeless atop the vibrant instrumental work. While certain moments of multi-layering and variation in tone attempt to alleviate this problem, the vocals were nevertheless an element of this album that never really clicked with me.

Stumbles aside, Rat King shows a lot of promise. There’s an emphasis on songcraft here that is absent from a lot of technical deathcore, and considering the youth of As You Drown as a band, I was impressed by the maturity and confidence in their delivery. An enjoyable head-banging exercise, and worth a shot for anyone who’s become bored with the direction this style has taken in the last couple of years.

The post As You Drown – Rat King Review appeared first on Last Rites.

Those already familiar with All Shall Perish will undoubtedly rank This Is Where It Ends behind all of its predecessors. Although the album is impeccably precise as far as its musicianship is concerned (which is why it garnered the points it did), the songs are just… well… really fucking boring. Most of the songs even give off a vibe that’s unfortunately similar to Dead To Fall at times. Unsurprising breakdowns, generic chord progressions and anti-government gang vocals — garnished only with impressive guitar solos and softer melodic guitar / piano / synth arrangements — drag the listener by the coattails through the album’s thirteen tracks. For dudes looking to knock someone’s teeth out, the songs will more than suffice, but those looking for a bit more technicality and cleverer songwriting will be disappointed (if they actually expected something in the first place).

Despite the album’s obvious blandness, it will do any branching-out metalhead more good than it will harm. Fans of this album will enjoy exploring the band’s impressive back catalogue, as well as those of other prominent metalcore-deathcore-don’t-post-angry-lashes-because-of-incorrect-genre-tagging acts. However, All Shall Perish seems to be divebombing directly into the ass of the same downward spiral that bands like All That Remains, Heaven Shall Burn and Unearth seem to be caught up in. The only way that divebombing could be good would be if part of Nuclear Blast‘s new marketing scheme is to sell more albums to people wearing Johnny Cupcakes t-shirts. If that’s the case, the band is right on target.

The post All Shall Perish – This Is Where It Ends Review appeared first on Last Rites.

So after the divisive Minus the Herd that saw Canada’s Ion Dissonance forsake their oppressively heavy, chaotic strains of Breathing is Irrelevant and Solace in favor of a more controlled (though still heavy and for me, very enjoyable) hardcore-ish lurch, Ion Dissonance is indeed back.

Returning to their more complex, virulent and violent sound, but still having some of the cavernous lope of Minus the Herd, Cursed sees Ion Dissonance arguably take up the mantle left by the break-up of Despised Icon, minus the pig squeals. As with the band’s first two efforts, Cursed is at times insanely jarring; a vortex of discordant, grinding blasts and mathcore-ridden, squealing guitars that will peel skin. Throw in some absolutely massive moments of The Acacia Strain-like heft, and the result is a seismic, tectonic-plate-shifting album of sheer heaviness.

Adding to the more throwback sound is vocalist Kevin McCaughey, who is more vitriolic and seething than on Minus the Herd, and the result is an often overwhelming album that might make your brain leak out of your ears. Cursed is one of those albums where you catch yourself shuddering, saying “holy shit, that’s heavy” out loud to yourself whether in public on headphones or alone in the privacy of your own home. I caught myself grimacing and cringing several times throughout Cursed’s mix of dense rumbles and jagged, screeching mathcore.

Singling out standout moments in such a vitriolic assault is virtually impossible amid the tangible sonic torque that Cursed delivers to your ears. From the opening lurch of “Cursed” (which initially hints at a Minus the Herd tone) to the vortex of second track “You People Are Messed Up” (which forcefully signals a return to Solace) to the palpable heft that closes the utterly devastating “This is the Last time I Repeat Myself” to the head-splitting chaos of “No Care Ever” and “After Everything That’s Happened, What did you Expect”, the album is simply relentless. And that’s all in the first half alone.

Even with their return to their earlier sound, there’s still a few lurching Minus the Herd moments, such as “We Like to Call This one….Fuck Off”, “Can Someone Please Explain This to Me”, “Disaster in Sight” ?”, or the god-awfully heavy “This is Considered Mere Formality”, but even then, it’s still far more vehement, caustic and frenzied. The only slight eyebrow raisers come at the end of the album: the 8-minute penultimate track “They’ll Never Know” which starts with some debilitating heft before entering several minutes of programming, spoken words and ambient noise, and “Pallor” delivers some rather odd clean vocals amidst some otherwise-crippling grooves.

My only real complaint about Cursed isn’t with the music but with the flimsy-assed, super-delicate digipack it comes packaged in. It’s easily the most thin and disposable put-together digipack I’ve ever owned and hardly fitting for one of 2010’s most destructive albums.

Anyway, if you’ll excuse me, I must go and take 12 Advil and get an icepack. Welcome the fuck back, Ion Dissonance.

The post Ion Dissonance – Cursed Review appeared first on Last Rites.