Nine Circles

Last one of these before Halloween. So, who are you parading around town as? I’m going as myself, straight from work. Should be fun. Get your horror movies on this weekend people, seriously. I tip my hat to all of you that I see on social media getting it done — handful of nights left to go, DO NOT let us down. Anyway, lots of metal here on Initial Descent this week: All Pigs Must Die place a nasty drillbit made of hardcore squarely in the temple on Hostage Animal, Blut Aus Nord slice the rib cage wide open with a machete of black metal on Deus Salutis Meae, DeathCrawl peels the skin back painfully slow with sludgy fingertips on Acceptable Level of Misery and Mendacium severs limbs then uses them to beat the blackened dead to a pulp on Decimating Titans. Sounds fun right? Of course it does. But that’s not all, we have much more fun lying in wait. Head inside and see for yourself — you never know what might be lurking around the corner…

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All Pigs Must Die – Hostage Animal (Southern Lord) – extreme metal [full review]

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Blut Aus Nord – Deus Salutis Meae (Debemur Morti) – black metal [full review]

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DeathCrawl – Acceptable Level of Misery (Independent) – sludge / death [feature]

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Mendacium – Decimating Titans (Independent) – black / death

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Also on tap:

30.000 Monkeys – Starrrrrrrring (Vibrancy Records) – noise rock

Acheulean Forests – The Enchantment (Pacific Threnodies) – dungeon synth

Agusa – S/T (Laser’s Edge) – psych / progressive rock

Apotelesma – Timewrought Kings (Solitude Production) – death / doom

Band of Spice – Shadows Remain (Scarlet Records) – experimental

Barrowlands – Tyndir (Vendetta) – black metal

Beyond Visions – Catch 22 (Bleeding Music Records) – melodic metal

Brandon Seabrook – Needle Driver (Nefarious Industries) – experimental alt-metal

Bunker 66 – Chained Down in Dirt (High Roller Records) – black / speed

Caïnan Dawn – F.O.H.A.T. (Osmose Productions) – black metal

Camerata Mediolanense – Le Vergini Folli (Prophecy) – neofolk post-punk

Complete Failure – Crossburner (Season of Mist) – hardcore

Cryptic Fog – Staring Through the Veil (Blood Harvest) – death metal

Cursed Moon – Rite of Darkness (Hells Headbangers) – gothic black metal

Delain – Live at Paradiso (Napalm Records) – symphonic metal

Devangelic – Phlegaton (Comatose Music) – brutal death metal

Dr. Living Dead! – Cosmic Conqueror (Century Media) – thrash

Dragonhammer – Obscurity (My Kingdom Music) – power / progressive

Eneferens – In the Hours Beneath (Nordvis/Bindrune) – black metal

Forefather – Tales From a Cloud-Born Land, Cassette EP (Fólkvangr Records) – pagan black metal

Gnaw – Cutting Pieces (Translation Loss) – experimental / noise

Honeymoon Disease – Part Human, Mostly Beast (The Sign Records) – swedish rock

Katla – Móðurástin (Prophecy) – prog icelandic stuff

Khazaddum – Plagues Upon Arda, CD (Black Market Metal Label) – orchestral death metal [full review, interview]

Malleus – Storm of Witchcraft (Blood Harvest) – black / thrash / speed

Minus Youth / Blood Shot Down – Split (Demons Run Amok) – hardcore

Mirror Queen – Verdigris (Tee Pee Records) – melodic hard rock

Natvres – Early Cvlts (Argento Records) – black metal

Necrotted – Worldwide Warfare (Rising Nemesis Records) – death metal

Ne Obliviscaris – Urn (Season of Mist) – progressive tech metal

Odious Icon – Planet of Immense Decay (Negative Vibe Records) – death metal

Oreida / Holocausto Em Chamas – Split (Harvest of Death / Signal Rex) – black metal

Párodos – Catharsis (Inverse Records) – avantgarde / post black metal

Pile of Excrements – Escatology (Memento Mori) – death metal 

Plaque Marks – Anxiety Driven Nervous Worship (Learning Curve Records) – extreme noise

Promethean Misery – Ghosts (PRC Music) – neoclassical doom

Sacroscum – Drugs & Death (Unholy Prophecies) – dirty black metal

Savage Messiah – Hands of Fate (Century Media) – heavy metal

Serenity – Lionheart (Napalm Records) – symphonic metal

Siinai – Sykli (Svart Records) – instrumental prog

The Decrees – Sons of Rage (Independent) – rock

Thy Serpent’s Cult – Supremacy of Chaos (Ordo MCM) – black / death

Torchia – Of Curses and Grief (Inverse) – death metal

Vrona – Impermanence (Independent) – progressive metal

VVon Dogma I – Communion, EP (Independent) – progressive metal

War Possession – Doomed to Chaos (Memento Mori) – death metal

Wojczech/Krupskaya – Split,7” (Degrees Records) – grindcore

Worm – Evocation of the Black Marsh (Iron Bonehead) – swampy black metal

zhOra – Ethos, Pathos, Logos (Independent) – progressive sludge

– Josh