Nine Circles

What album grabbed you last week? And I mean, really grabbed hold and wouldn’t let go? One, several, all? Well, just as you thought it was safe to keep listening to that or those, here we have a whole new list of metal to sink your teeth into. It’s what we do, you’re welcome. Enough small talk, there’s much to get to. What, you ask? Keep reading…

If you ride with #ArchgoatArmy – and you should – you’re in for a treat since they’re back with The Luciferian Crown which turns over more of their hypnotic groove but never lays off the twisted black / death we’ve come to know and love. Deicide’s Satan loving might be a tad blasé but with Overtures of Blasphemy they prove that after nearly thirty years they can still make some damn good death metal. Switching gears a bit with black metal and violins (yes, you read that right) is Alma from Windfaerer and on this, their third full length, the folk aspect and black metal are a perfect marriage. One more switch up before I officially unleash you on the rest of the list: Mankind Woman from Brant Bjork is some damn sweet desert rock that recalls the early days of the genre he helped to build but combines all his talents under one roof and the album is phenomenal because of it.

NOW you are officially unleashed. Enjoy.

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Archgoat – The Luciferian Crown (Debemur Morti Productions) – black / thrash

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Deicide – Overtures of Blasphemy (Century Media) – death metal

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Windfaerer – Alma (Avantgarde Music) – black metal

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Brant Bjork – Mankind Woman (Heavy Psych Sounds Records) – desert rock

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Also on tap:

A-Sun Amissa – Ceremony In the Stillness (Gizeh Records / Consouling Sounds) – doom

Abhorrence – Megalohydrothalassophobic (Svart Records) – death metal

Aeolian – Silent Witness (Snow Wave Records) – melodic death metal

Anisoptera – Spawn of Odonata (Independent) – progressive death metal

Black Viper – Hellions of Fire (High Roller Records) – heavy / speed

Bosse-de-nage – Further Still (The Flenser) – post black metal [feature review]

Burial Hordes – ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ ΑΙΩΝΙΟΣ (Folter Records) – black / death

Colonel Petrov’s Good Judgement – Among Servants (Moral Machine) – experimental metal

Conan – Existential Void Guardian (Napalm Records) – doom

Crucible of Hate – Dark Metamorphosis (Independent) – death metal

Cultural Warfare – Warmageddon (M-Theory Audio) – thrash

Diabolic Force – Praise of Satan (Hells Headbangers) – black / speed

Druglord – New Day Dying (Sludgelord Records) – doom

Dunbarrow – Dunbarrow II (RidingEasy Records) – hard rock

Emma Ruth Rundle – On Dark Horses (Sargent House) – dark singer / songwriter

Entierro – S/T (Independent) – thrash / doom

Ethernity – The Human Race Extinction (AFM) – progressive metal

Future Usses – The Existential Haunting (Pelagic Records) – psych rock

Fuzz Evil – High On You (Independent) – rock

Goat Sperm – Voice in the Womb, EP (Inferna Profundus Records) – black / death

Grave Digger – The Living Dead (Napalm Records) – heavy metal

Grisly – The Spectral Wars (Xtreem Music) – death metal

Guerilla Toss – Twisted Crystal (DFA) – art rock

Hessian – Mercenary Retrograde (Urtod Void / Blasphlegmy Records) – heavy metal

Hitman – The Offering: Side 1, EP (Independent) – modern metal

Hitten – Twist of Fate (High Roller Records) – heavy metal

Horsewhip – S/T (Financial Ruin) – hardcore

Hyperdontia – Nexus of Teeth (Dark Descent) – death metal

Infernal Coil – Within a World Forgotten (Profound Lore) – black metal

Irreversible Mechanism – Immersion (Blood Music) – technical death metal

Kult – The Eternal Darkness I Adore (Folter Records) – black metal

Ominous Eclipse – Sinister (Independent) – death metal

Pantheist – Seeking Infinity (Melancholic Realm Productions) – doom

P.H.O.B.O.S. – Phlogiston Catharsis (Transcending Obscurity) – doom / black

Plague Rider – Rhizome (Panurus Productions / Inverted Grim-Mill Productions) – tech death

Radux – Disaster Imminent (Svart Records) – thrash

Sepulcher – Panoptic Horror (Edged Circle Productions) – death metal

Soen – Lykaia Revisited (Silver Lining Music) – post metal

Soulhealer – Up From the Ashes (Rockshots Records) – power metal

Source – S/T, Reissue (High Roller Records) – heavy metal

The Mutineers – Threshold, EP (Mutiny Studios) – rock

Tomb of Finland – Frozen Beneath (Mighty Music) – melodic doom

Witch King – Voice of the Ossuary (Blood Harvest) – black/death

Wrestling – Ride On Freaks (Inverse Records) – heavy metal

Xalpen – Wowk Ottr (Morbid Skull Records) – black metal

– Josh