Welcome back, everyone! Two weeks gone, and the actual World Cup is getting ready to move into the knockout stages–which means it’s time for us to do the same here with the World Cup of Metal!

Here are our knockout-round match-ups:

• Brazil: Sepultura – “Refuse/Resist”
• Chile: Necrosis – “Hidden Enemy”

• Colombia: Agony – “Die Alone”
• Uruguay: Upon Shadows – “Alchemy of Suffering”

• Netherlands: Epica – “Never Enough”
• Mexico: Brujeria – “Brujerizmo”

• Costa Rica: Sight of Emptiness – “Essence”
• Greece: Septicflesh – “Order of Dracul”

• France: Gojira – “Flying Whales”
• Nigeria: (no known metal bands, thus “Hey Africa!“)

• Germany: Rammstein – “Du Hast”
• Algeria: Barbaros – “Old Shadows”

• Argentina: Auvernia – “Blue Blood”
• Switzerland: Celtic Frost – “Circle of the Tyrants”

• Belgium: Aborted – “Coffin Upon Coffin”
• USA: Pantera – “Cowboys From Hell”

The actual competition’s on a rest day today, but will start right back up tomorrow with Brazil-Chile and Colombia-Uruguay. Or, as we’d say it, with Sepultura-Necrosis and Agony-Upon Shadows. In the meantime, here’s an updated Spotify playlist (Minus “Hey Africa,” because that’s not a thing you can actually Spotify. Sorry, Nigeria–get some damn metal going!):

This will probably be the last update for a while, as we don’t really see a point to making 8- 4- and 2-song playlists going into the later stages, but you can bet we’ll be keeping you up to date on our Twitter page. Just follow #WorldCupofMetal and you should see our updates. Until then, keep it heavy!

-Dan

Live. Love. Plow. Horns Up.