Nine Circles

Blasting into this week with a movie that if you’re a horror fan, is an absolute must: Mandy. You may have heard the hubbub over this thing but I’m here to tell you said hubbub is on point. I won’t spoil it but Nicolas Cage is a beast and there’s a nod to Celtic Frost. Grab it on your favorite VOD platform and get ready to come unhinged. Now, for what you came for: new metal and there’s a heaping platter of it this week so let’s jump in the fire…

Opening this week’s festivities is an album that dropped late last week but I’m including it here because it blew me away with its ferocious nod to the kings of heavy metal but one that we, as heavy metal fans, desperately need to remind us that staying grounded to our roots is extremely important so go immediately and grab a copy of Hexripper’s Demo 2018 – I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun with five songs or the last time I felt such a joyous rush of nostalgia. Next up is Bonehunter with their third full length Children of the Atom and if speed metal laced with black and punk interests you then this is a no-brainer – kick the tires and light the fires folks, the band certainly did here. Ambient black metallers From the Bogs of Aughiska grace us with quite possibly their best, darkest and harshest effort yet with Mineral Bearing Veins which still has my jaw planted firmly on the floor, just sayin’. Closing out these top four with a bang is Valdrin who return with their second full length of occult mythology by way of blackened death metal, Two Carrion Talismans.

So, there’s a peek but this list is longer than we’ve had in recent weeks and all we got is time – I mean, what else are you going to do on a Monday that’s better than this?! Get in there and click those links.

—

Hexripper – Demo 2018 (Independent) – heavy metal

—

Bonehunter – Children of the Atom (Hells Headbangers) – black / speed

—

From the Bogs of Aughiska – Mineral Bearing Veins (Apocalyptic Wicthcraft) – ambient black metal

—

Valdrin – Two Carrion Talismans (Blood Harvest) – black / death

—

Also on tap:

A Forest of Stars – Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes (Prophecy Productions) – black metal

Absolution – Confessions of the Iniquitous (CDN) – death metal

All My Sins – Pra Sila – Vukov Totem (Saturnal) – black metal

Ambassador – Belly of the Whale (Independent) – post-punk

Anaal Nathrakh – A New Kind of Horror (Metal Blade) – extreme metal

Armed For Apocalypse – Palm Reader, EP (Independent) – sludge / deathcore

Ashbury – Eye of the Stygian Witches (High Roller Records) – hard rock

Asylum – 3-3-88 (Shadow Kingdom) – doom

Atrament – Scum Sect (Sentient Ruin / Caligari / Blood Harvest) – crust / death

behind closed doors – metanoia (Independent) – progressive metal

Beauty In Chaos – Finding Beauty In Chaos (33.3 Music Collective) – alt-metal

Binah – Phobiate (Osmose Productions) – death metal

Black Funeral – The Dust and Darkness, 12” Mini LP (Iron Bonehead) – black metal

Blood of Serpents – Sulphur Sovereign (Non Serviam Records) – black metal

Brainstorm – Midnight Ghost (AFM) – power metal

Brant Bjork – Local Angel, Reissue (Heavy Psych Sounds) – rock

Burial Shrine – Labyrinth of Bridges (Saturnal) – black metal

Constant Lovers – Pangs (Independent) – rock / punk

Cultes Des Ghoules – Sinister, Or Treading the Darker Paths (Hells Headbangers) – black metal

Dakhma – Hamkar Atonement (Iron Bonehead) – black metal

Dödsrit – Spirit Crusher (Prosthetic Records) – black / crust

Don’t Disturb My Circles – Lower Canopy, EP (Ring Leader / Regulator Records) – noise / post-hardcore

Dynazty – Firesign (AFM) – heavy metal

Electric Citizen – Helltown (RidingEasy Records) – heavy rock

Empty – Vacio (Osmose Productions) – black metal

Evil Scarecrow – Chapter IV: Antartarctica (Dead Box Records) – metal

Evilon – Leviathan (WormHoleDeath / Aural Music Group / The Orchard) – melodic folk death metal

Farsot / Coldworld – Toteninsel (Prophecy Productions) – black metal

Four Seconds Ago – The Vacancy (3DOT Records) – progressive metal

Gory Blister – 1991.Bloodstained (Mighty Music) – death metal

Graveborne – 1918 (Wolfspell Records) – black metal

Heads For the Dead – Serpent’s Curse (Transcending Obscurity) – death metal

Hell In Town – Bones (Vapocalypse) – southern / sludge

Helrunar – Vanitas Vanitatvm (Prophecy Productions) – black metal

Hermóor – Rovdjur & Northern Might (Wolfspell Records) – black metal

Horrendous – Idol (Season of Mist) – death metal

Höstblod – Mörkets Intåg (Wolfspell Records) – black / neofolk

Hypnos – Set Fire To the Sky (The Sign Records) – heavy rock

Immortal Gaurdian – Age of Revolution (M-Theory Audio) – progressive metal

Malthusian – Across Deaths (Invictus Productions / Dark Descent) – black/death

Metasoma – Chapter 2, EP (Independent) – hard rock

Mirrors For Psychic Warfare – I See What I Became (Neurot Recordings) – avantgarde metal

Morte Incandescente – Somos o Fogo do teu Inferno (War Arts Productions) – black metal

Mourning By Morning – S/T (Wolfspell Records) – melodic black metal

Necronomicon – Unleashed Bastards (El Puerto Records) – thrash

North of South – New Latitudes (Rockshots Recrods) – progressive metal

Ossuary Anex – Holy Blasphemition (Xtreem Music) – brutal death metal

Paranoid – Heavy Mental Fuck Up! (The Sign Records) – hardcore

Paths – In Lands Thought Lost (Bindrune Recordings) – black metal

Phal:Angst – Phase IV (Bloodshed666 Records) – industrial post-rock

Pillars – Onward to Nothingness (Seeing Red Records) – doom

Project Silence – Infinity (Sliptrick) – industrial metal

Prophetic Scourge – Calvary (Klonosphere Records / Season of Mist) – progressive death metal

Psychotomy – Aphotik (Everlasting Spew) – death metal

Revocation – The Outer Ones (Metal Blade) – progressive death metal

Runeshard – Dreaming Spire, EP (Wolfspell Records) – symphonic metal

Scorched – Ecliptic Butchery (20 Buck Spin) – death metal

Side Effects – Descending Rabbit Holes (Rockshots Records) a modern metal

Steingrab – Jahre nach der Pest (Soundage Productions) – atmospheric / depressive black metal [full review]

Stellar Descent – The Future Is Dark (Sol y Nieve) – atmospheric black metal

Sunflo’er – No Hell Noise (Noise Salvation Records) – hardcore

T-Tops – Disease, EP (Magnetic Eye Records) – noise rock

Terror – Total Retaliation (Pure Noise Records) – hardcore

The Clay People – Demon Hero (& Other Extraordinary Phantasmagoric Anomalies & Fables) (Independent) – hard rock

This Will Destroy You – New Others Part One (Dark Operative) – post-rock

To End It All – Scourge of Woman (Scry Recordings) – death / industrial

UN – Sentiment (Translation Loss Records) – death / doom

Vreid – Lifehunger (Seasons of Mist) – black metal

Witch Ripper – Homestead (DHU Records) – psych / stoner

Wolfheart – Constellation of the Black Light (Napalm Records) – black metal

Zeni Geva & Steve Albini – Maximum Implosion, Comp. (Cold Spring) – noise

– Josh