Nine Circles

No bitchin’ this week. I could, don’t get me wrong. Rather, I’ll just keep it all in my head and see visions equal to that Cannibal Corpse album that came out last week. As the kids say, what a banger. Moving on, new week and new metal so let’s do it…Capra explodes with some vicious hardcore and punk infused metal this side of, well, a very long time and the fact that this is a debut? Snap! A name I was excited to see that I haven’t in a long stretch is Bongzilla who returns with an album I’m stok(n)ed on and you should be too, Akiavel are back with a blistering sophomore death metal effort, and Altarage keep the violence going with their brand of blackened death metal that keeps the needle pegged to extreme. Alrighty then, these top four are worth your time, but there’s a lot more to follow that bears the same worth. Do it.

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Capra – In Transmission (Metal Blade / Blacklight Media) – metal / punk / hardcore [interview]

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Bongzilla – Weedsconsin (Heavy Psych Sounds) – stoner metal

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Akiavel – Væ Victis (Independent) – death metal [profile]

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Altarage – Succumb (Season of Mist Underground Activities) – black / death

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Also on tap:

AntiMozdeBeast – The Ritual, EP (Independent) – industrial

Aphonic Threnody – The All Consuming Void (Independent) – funeral doom

Astrakhan – A Slow Ride Towards Death (Melodic Passion) – prog rock

Big | Brave – Vital (Southern Lord) – metal

Body Void – Bury Me Beneath This Rotting Earth (Prosthetic) – black / doom

Bongzilla and Tons – Doom Sessions Vol. 4 (Heavy Psych Sounds) – stoner doom 

Cicada the Burrower – Corpseflower (Independent) – progressive black metal

Coldcell – A Greater Evil (Ladlo) – metal

Crypts of Despair – All Light Swallowed (Transcending Obscurity) – death metal

Curimus – Garden of Eden (Sliptrick) – death / thrash

Dead World Reclamation – Aura of Iniquity (Independent) – death metal 

Death Chamber – Experiments In Warfare (Dead Center Productions) – death metal

Déhà – Cruel Words, Vinyl Issue (Burning World) – metal

Desolate Realm – S/T (Independent) – doom

Devilz By Definition – The Bitter Remains of Human Consumption, EP (Independent) – groove metal

Extinguish – S/T, EP (Creator-Destructor) – hardcore

Frozen Crown – Winterbane (Scarlet) – power metal

Gilby Clarke – The Gospel Truth (Golden Robot) – rock

Helslave – From the Sulphur Depths (Pulverised) – death metal

Hideous Divinity – LV-426, EP (Century Media) – death metal

Howling Giant – Alteration, EP (Independent) – heavy psych

House By the Cemetery – Rise of the Rotten (Pulverised) – death metal

Hymnr – Far Beyond Insanity (Saturnal) – black metal

IDEK. – The Trek (Layered Reality Productions) – experimental

Macabre Demise / Sucking Leech – Observation / Damned to… (Independent) – deathgrind

Malformity – Monumental Ruin (Unspeakable Axe) – death metal

Mara – Djävulstoner (WormHoleDeath / The Orchard) – metal

Miasma Theory – S/T (Shadowlit Music) – heavy metal

Minas Morgul – Heinkehr (Trollzorn) – black / death

Morticula Rex – Autumnal Rites (Immortal Souls / Satanath) – death / doom

Mother of All – The Age of Solipsist (Black Lion) – death metal

Neptunian Maximalism – Solar Drone Ceremony (I, Voidhanger) – drone doom / psych 

No Words / Abjekt – Between Realities, Split (Marrow In the Pines) – ambient / dsbm

Noêta – Elm (Independent) – black / ambient / folk

Non Serviam – Le Coeur Bat (code666) – metal

Nordgeist – Frostwinter (Kunsthall) – black metal 

Obsolete – Animate//Isolate (Unspeakable Axe) – death / thrash

Odal – Welten Mutter (Eisenwald) – black metal

Old Forest – Mournfall (Death To Music Productions) – doom

Ole Teigen – Magician In Despair (Apollon) – avantgarde

Omega – Nebra (Dusktone) – black/doom

Paraphilia – Primordium of Sinister Butchery (Independent) – death metal

Paysage D’Hiver – Geister (Kunsthall) – black metal

Phantom Fire – Return of the Goat (Edged Circle) – metal

Plague of the Fallen – Bleeding and Vehement (Vomit Your Shirt / Miasma) – death metal

Ringarë – Thrall of Winter’s Majesty (Amor Fati) – black metal

Sacred Shrines – Enter the Woods (Rebel Waves) – rock

Skindred – Roots Rock Riot, Vinyl Edition (Hassle Hindsight) – rock

Spectral Lore – Ετερόφωτος (I, Voidhanger) – black metal 

Tetramorphe Impure – Dead Hopes, EP (Solitude Productions) – death/doom

Tetramorphe Impure – The Last Chains, Demo (Solitude Productions) – death/doom

The Antikaroshi – Extract. Transform. Debase (Exile On Mainstream) – post-rock

The Flaming Sideburns – Silver Flames (Svart) – rock

The Marigold – Apostate (Trepanation Recordings) – stoner / sludge

To The Dogs – S/T, EP (Edged Circle) – crust

Tombstones In Their Eyes – Looking For a Light (Kitten Robot / Somewherecold) – psych / shoegaze

Various Artists – Brown Acid The Twelfth Trip (RidingEasy) – protometal

Vexillum – Why Good Men Go To War (Scarlet) – folk / metal

Void Vator – Great Fear Rising (Ripple Music) – metal

Walking Bombs – Tears We Should Have Shed (Independent) – rock / punk

WarCall – Dead End Pt. 1 (Plan B Music) – heavy metal

wedrowcy tulacze zbiegi – Futurista (Devoted Art Propaganda) – metal

Whipstriker / Ice War – Split (Helldprod) – metal

Witch Hunt – Rock n’ Roll Possession (Dead Center Productions) – speed metal 

Worst Doubt – Extinction (BDHW) – hardcore

–Josh