by roving reporter (for the Oscillating Oculus) Thornswrath
click to watch
and listen to
LAST
LAST
live in
SLC
Man, my friends Ian and Chase in Salt Lake's own electronic death duo's LAST are sending out permanent waves from the heart of their soul, and I'm feeling it. I'm so damn lucky I went to this show. I used to see them perform live all the time while they were in 2-Headed Whale, back around when the pandemic broke, when they were a four piece, with Grayden on the saw and Angela on electric violin.
There was absolutely nothing like a 2-Headed Whale show. Like that time I saw them at Crucial Fest I think it was, opening for Wovenhand. What a damn magical night that was.
And the time they opened for THOU at Diabolical. With barely enough space to hold 26 people, that makes for a legendary scene. THOU covered Would by Alice in Chains, if I recall rightly. And now LAST has gone on a few tours, and have gathered a nationwide rep as the hard core bad asses they are. I can't stress enough how much love I have for these guys. They have played with absolutely everybody in the scene. From our very own Portal To The Goddman Blood Dimension, Thou again just last Friday (I missed it), Crippling Alcoholism in Boston, Izthmi out of Seattle, Guhts outta Brooklyn, Void Eater from Atlanta, Ghostlight, Drifter, Tenant, Stander, Exosphere, Glass Artery, Mold Farmer, Lechers, Debilitating Lower Back Pain, Jain Broom (which I filmed a post-Odyssey trip-sequence I'm saving to release on my YT channel for that special rainy day) and I'm pretty sure they played with Primitive Man. I guess my point is LAST aren't going places THEY BEEN PLACES. LAST is all set to conquer the world. These two guys bring it to the post core scene or whatever you wanna call it. LAST remain standing on four legs in plain defiance. You do not fuck with LAST. They are the nicest guys you're ever likely to meet in any dive bar or club across the nation.
Watch this video again if you have to, and keep an eye out on them. cuz LAST are killin' it, and they're only getting started. If you're on bandcamp, you may have already discovered them there, their auspicious debut ALL TUNNEL, NO LIGHT dropped in January of 2021. Then, nearly three years later, in October of 2023, they released their sophomore effort SIFTING THROUGH ASH FOR THE BELONGINGS OF OUR LOVED ONES, which shifts their colossal sound into the next phase of their shattering odyssey. I can't even begin to imagine what they have in store for us on their third monumental release.
It's really not worth me trying to even describe to you the power and emotional impact of LAST. If you take a minute to google the history of their tours, well good luck pulling anything up as of yet because they are nestled firmly and comfortably deep in the underground where they ought to be. You will soon enough discover that we have unearthed a legend yet in the making of the post hard core death noise doom scene, right here in our fair city by the great salt lake of shedding toxins. Ian and Chase are the coolest guys to come out of this cracked city in a god damn dog's age. Do yourselves a favor and buy both of their albums immediately, or an alternate future self of yours will be lamenting in shame and sorrow over your missed opportunity.
Both of these albums are so amazing that I owe it to myself to write reviews up for each of them. By the time I get around to doing that, we'll likely get absolutely crushed by their third. It's coming like that darkened asteroid NASA doesn't even know about lurking just around the cosmological corner and coming at us like an extinction event the likes of us have never heard. Get prepared now and familiarize yourselves with their first two albums. You've been warned.