Nine Circles

I’m not going to lie to you people. I think 2016 might be the best year in metal (particularly death metal) in a very, very long time. This is something I’ve been ranting about in my monthly recaps but it needs to be said as much as possible: each month in 2016 has provided an endless amount of terrific albums. Picking a top 18 for any month this year wouldn’t pose a significant hurdle. That’s just how good it’s been. So, with that in mind let’s take a look back at the last three months in metal.

I’m not going to lie to you guys. The second quarter of 2016 is stacked. A lot of the albums below might get punted out of the top lists by things like Gevurah, Ihsahn,  Nucleus,  Zealotry,  Grave Miasma, Victims and many more. This year is absolutely stacked with killer releases. So I will do my best with monthly reviews to keep some semblance of cool and continue to try and point everyone in the direction of some smaller releases that deserve a whole bunch of attention. With that said, here’s the Top 9 releases of 2016 (so far) as I see it:

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Top Nine Releases: January-March 2016 

Ifrinn – Ifrinn

Ritual Chamber – Obscurations (To Feast on the Seraphim)

Draugnim – Vulturine

Ravensire – The Cycle Never Ends

Spinebreaker – Ice Grave 

Chthe’ilist – Le Dernier Crépuscule

Ripper – Experiment of Existence

Oranssi Pazuzu – Värähtelijä

Inverloch – Distance | Collapsed

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Nine Honorable Mentions:

• Extermination Temple – Lifeless Forms
• Pink Mass – Slvt Kvlt
• Blood Ceremony – Lords of Misrule
• Castle Freak – Human Hive
• Irkallian Oracle – Apollyon
• Eight Bells – Landless
• Slægt – Beautiful and Damned
• Classhole – Classhole
• Latitudes – Old Sunlight

– Manny-O-War