Demo tape from this new LA band featuring members of Smut, Cemento, Hot Load, Bib, and Cristo.

Our take: This band describes themselves as “LA METAL PUNK” on the j-card of this, their debut release. While Death Rites’ sound is cloaked in the sensibilities of super raw shit like GISM and Parabellum, it reminds me of very early Metallica (like No Life ’Til Leather and Kill ‘Em All) in that the songs and performances are influenced by the relentless forward drive of UK82 punk. It’s also coming from a similar place as the English Dogs circa Forward into Battle or Sacrilege on Within the Prophecy, i.e. raised on GBH and Discharge, but also acknowledging ‘tallica kicks ass. The riffs are fully metal, but the vocals are punk as fuck. The singer sounds like they’re influenced by 80s Japanese punk and the physical tape recalls an artifact of 80s underground metal tape trading in pretty much every way, right down to its length (three songs in about seven minutes, the perfect amount to fill that awkward space on the C90 you’re sending to your pen pal in Saskatoon or Bremen or whatever). Very cool.