UMUR "Unholy Puppets" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Italian thrash/death metal act Last Rites. The album was independently released in July 2016. Last Rites was formed in 1997 and released their debut full-length studio album "Mind Prison" in 2002. They also have several demos and a couple of EPs under their belt.

Stylistically the music on "Unholy Puppets" is a brutal form of thrash metal with clear death metal traits. Artists like Kreator, Coroner, and Death come to mind at various points throughout the album. Last Rites fortunately don´t sound like a clone of any of those mentioned artists, and although I wouldn´t exactly call their music original either, there´s good quality here in the songwriting department. This is aggressive, powerful, and very effective thrash/death metal with a rabid dog snarling vocalist in front.

The material on the 10 track, 43:30 minutes long album is well written, albeit maybe a bit one-dimensional. The inclusion of the occasional melodic lead/guitar solo helps a lot though, and provides a breather amidst the wall of aggressive vocals, razor sharp riffs, and thundering rhythms. The musicianship is strong, and the album also features a pretty well sounding production, so all in all "Unholy Puppets" is a quality release by Last Rites. They may need that last piece of the puzzle called having a unique and distinct sounding style, but when they manage to produce something this effective a 3.5 star (70%) rating is still well deserved (maybe that rating is even a bit too low).