Nine Circles

First full week of this time change and I already feel better. Under the guise of having a hard time with it, did you miss anything we had last week? Go back and research but do, at the very least, catch our February album of the month chat for Ithaca’s The Language of Injury, and I’ll make it easy for you – link here. New week and new metal, GO.

Leading this charge is NY’s Sigils with their spine tingling doom debut You Built the Altar, You Lit the Leaves, its soaring melancholy meets occult themes and personal backstory makes for a splendid experience. Next up, Gods Without Name from Aoratos (new offering from the mind behind Akhlys) is a whirling maelstrom of black metal with a terrifying atmosphere, no surprise here from Naas Alcameth. Moving right along, Tempel who combine good-time old school metal, rock and hardcore for a sound that’s, well…, a damn good time on Tempel. Last up top is California’s Tryptamyne who recently found a home for Tryptamyne with upstart label Vargheist Records and since the label deals in a niche corner of the extreme, this blend of grind and progressive elements with an experimental flair is a perfect fit.

Beyond these four, a massive pile awaits…

—

Sigils – You Built the Altar, You Lit the Leaves (Independent) – doom [profile]

—

Aoratos – Gods Without Name (Debemur Morti Productions) – black metal

—

Tempel – S/T (Jansen) – metal [full review]

—

Tryptamyne – S/T, EP (Vargheist Records) – avantgarde

—

Also on tap:

Accursed Spawn – The Virulent Host (PRC) – death metal

Aephanemer – Prokopton (Independent) – death metal

Almost Honest – Seiches and Sirens (Electric Talon) – groove metal

Ashen Horde – Fallen Cathedrals (Extreme Metal Music) – prog death / black

Battle Beast – No More Hollywood Endings (Nuclear Blast) – heavy metal

Bleeding Utopia – Where the Light Comes To Die (Black Lion / Spiritual Beast) – melodic death metal

Bloodbound – Rise of the Dragon Empire (AFM) – symphonic metal

Booby Trap – Stand Up And Fight (Firecum Records) – thrash

Cardinals Folly / Lucifer’s Fall – Split (Cruz Del Sur) – doom

Dälek – Respect to the Authors, 12” EP (Exile On Mainstream) – alt hip hop

Dim Aura – The Triumphant Age of Death (Saturnal) – black metal

Dominanz – Let the Death Enter (Mighty Music) – black metal / extreme

Draghkar – Eternal Abyss (Horror Pain Gore Death) – death metal

Dwarrowdelf – Of Dying Lights (Flowing Downward) – black metal

Eggs of Gomorrh – Outpregnate (Krucyator) – black / death

Evergreen Refuge – Skyward (A Moment of Clarity) – ambient / black metal

Folian – Ache Pillars (Apneic Void Sounds) – experimental noise

Goatkraft – Sulphurous Northern Bestiality (Iron Bonehead) – black metal

Good Tiger – Redux, Remix EP (Metal Blade) – metal

Gore – Revanche (Exile On Mainstream) – instru-tech metal

Grave Violator – Back to the Cult (Reaper Metal Productions) – speed metal

High Reeper – Higher Reeper (Heavy Psych Sounds) – psych metal

Idiot Sect – S/T, EP (Independent) – grind / thrash

Illimitable Dolor – Leaden Light (Transcending Obscurity) – atmospheric death / doom

Imprecation – Damnatio Ad Bestias (Dark Descent) – death metal

Iron Griffin – Curse of the Sky (Gates of Hell) – heavy metal

Megadeth – Warheads on Foreheads (Capitol) – thrash

Meridian – Margin of Error (Mighty Music) – heavy metal

Mother of Millions – Artifacts (Vicisolum) – progressive metal

Niggght – Violent Delicacy, EP (Independent) – psych metal

Nusquama – Horizon Ontheemt (Eisenwald/Haeresis Novoimagi) – black metal

Obsidian Sea – Strangers (Ripple Music) – doom

Obscuring Veil – Fleshvoid to Naught (I, Voidhanger Records) – black metal

Our Dying World – Expedition, EP (Independent) – metal

Parting Gift – Ensom, EP (Fearless) – punk

Putrefied Corpse – Left to Rot (Xtreem Music) – death metal

Raiju – Non Sequitor (Independent) – alt-metal

Red Sun Rising – Peel, EP (Razor & Tie) – rock

Schattenfall – Melancholie des Seins (Redefining Darkness) – atmospheric black metal

Sermon – Birth of the Marvellous (Prosthetic) – progressive metal

Shabti – Trembling and Shorn (Last Mercy Emissions) – black/death

Stahlmann – Kinder Der Sehnsucht (AFM) – metal

Terror Oath – S/T, EP (Iron Bonehead) – black / death

The Flaying – Angry, Undead (PRC) – death metal

Thecodontion – Jurassic, 7″ (Xenoglossy Productions) – experimental noise

The Owls Are Not What They Seem – Feral Blood (Eleventh Key) – dark ambient

Tia Carrera – Visitors / Early Purple (Small Stone) – psych rock

Truth Corroded – Bloodlands (Unique Leader) – death / thrash

Ultra Silvam – The Spearwound Salvation (Shadow) – black metal

Undead Prophecies – Sempiternal Void (Listenable) – death metal

Unnatural Ways – The Paranoia Party (Sleeping Giant Glossolia) – avantgarde

Usurper – Lords of the Permafrost (Soulseller) – heavy metal

Vircolac – Masque (Dark Descent / Sepulchral Voice) – metal

Witnesses – To disappear and to be nothing (Independent) – doom

Ysengrin – Réincrudation (I, Voidhanger Records) – dark metal

Zero Fire – Second Sun, EP (Independent) – hard rock / alt-metal

– Josh