Too many albums, too few reviewers…that’s the problem with all the metal blogs, not just this one. What do you do? How do you get a sense of what’s out there if you’re only listening to a fraction of what’s getting released? How do you open yourself up to new music? I’ll tell you how: you jump into all the unpicked promos each month and devote a sentence or two giving a sense of what you gleaned from it.

That’s right: we’re back for another round of “The Month That Was…” so enough preambling…let’s dive into this edition of Nine Circles ov… and see what’s been festering in May 2024.

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Abrams is big for the 9C staff. Fearless Editor™ Josh turned me on to the band all the way back with their 2017 release Morning and each album has only gotten better. So when I tell you Blue City sounds like the pinnacle of their sound, you better believe it. This is propulsive stoner/desert hard rock that swings and grooves like a sledgehammer, tracks like opener “Tomorrow” and the stellar sounding drums that kick off the laid back riff of “Lungfish” tell me all I need to know – this is going to be an essential summer album. Probably my AOTM for May if we’re keeping track (and don’t worry: the AOTM podcast is coming back in a big new way starting in June!) and I suspect it’ll be that for others, too.

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Craving a little post-rock for the inevitable heat of the summer? Bossk has you covered with .4 which is in fact a full album and not just four tenths of one! The UK outfit have always excelled at huge, cinematic soundscapes in their music as far back as 2016’s Audio Noir which is where I discovered them, and .4 continues the trend with massive crushing waves of riffs and ambience that wash over you in an enveloping pool, where the weight is a comfort as it slowly, inevitably drowns you in its sound. Don’t believe me? Check out the way opener “Kobe x Pjin” gradually increases in intensity until in a collage of instruments you’re suddenly pulled under, and all the happier for it…

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Oh man…gimme sone of that HM-2 glory that Gatecreeper are pushing on new album Dark Superstition. A little bit of a grower after the immediacy of 2021’s An Unexpected Reality, I’ve come around to the slightly (ever so slightly) measured tempos and big ass solos – the sound has opened up a bit and you can feel the more classic heavy metal tendencies peek through on tracks like “The Black Curtain” and “Superstitious Vision” while retaining the pulverizing death metal we all love on the volcanic riffage of “Masterpiece of Chaos”. Down and dirty OSDM is always going to be my go-to when it comes to this genre, and Dark Superstition has that in spades.

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More stoner metal? Not sure how I can make any more obvious that I’m stacking this month’s column with my favorite kinds of music. Hashtronaut pack that huge low-frequency get into your bones sound bands like Sleep and Electric Wizard made huge, but of course with that swagger and pendulum swing of the best stoner doom metal. No Return kicks off in grand style with “Rip Wizard” and if it wasn’t 12:18 in the afternoon during an office lunch break break rest assured I’d be doing just that with this album playing full blast on my stereo instead of quietly listening on headphones in my office while I do everything in my power to not finishing collating these TPS reports…

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RIP Steve Albini. Thank you for all the incredible albums you either released in your various guises or produced/engineered. And thank you for this last gift: a final album from Shellac, released days after your death. To All Trains doesn’t sound like the final word of a legend; it’s the continuing roar of a pioneer still in his prime. Songs like “Girl From Outside” feel simultaneously vintage from the era of his largest work and timeless all the same. No one else in the heavy world could create so much space in their music and still maintain that level of massive heaviness. No one. To have this last hurrah is to be cherished, and played mandatory at full volume. If you’re ears aren’t bleeding, you’re doing it wrong…

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This is to correct the grievous mistake of Corey when he reviewed A Spark in the Aether back in 2015. To be clear The Tangent is NOT a metal band of any kind, and the site was a little more snarky back then. But I’m here now, and the main outlet for Andy Tillison is one of my favorite modern progressive rock bands. To Follow Polaris finds Tillison sans his normal band and taking on every single aspect of the album’s creation, from writing, playing all the instruments, recording, producing, and even doing the artwork. The result is a grand blend of prog, rock, and pop, reaching back to the 70 Canterbury scene and all the way into new prog movements made popular by bands like The Flower Kings, Spock’s Beard, and others. This is again most certainly not metal, but if you’re open to it, songs like the entrancing “The North Sky” and the massive 21-minute epic “The Anachronism” will propel you to fantastic places. I make no apologies for how much I love this, and while Abrams is most certainly my pick for AOTM for May when it comes to heavy music, this is my pick overall. Also a little self promotion: I’m currently reviewing my Tangent collection over at my personal site if you want to learn more about their work. And yeah…I’ll be covering A Spark in the Aether eventually. Take THAT, Corey!

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The opening to “Crookhead” which incidentally is the opening track from Hidden, the latest offering from the leviathan that is Ufomammut might be one of the heaviest things you’ll hear in 2024. Those guitars are so clipped and distorted, and yet it’s mixed so perfectly with everything it makes perfect sense even as your brain starts to melt. It’s so hard to do this kind of music with any kind of nuance, and yet time and again Ufomammut manage that feat. There are moments of tectonic doom and stoner groove, there are shades of psychedelia in the flanging swirls and siren pulses of electronics, and it never sounds like anything OTHER than Ufomammut. Folks may get some immediate mileage out of the shorter tracks, but for my money the real gold is being spun in the two mammoth 10-minute opuses, the aforementioned “Crookhead” and “Mausoleum”.

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Next to The Tangent, this might be the most “Chris” record in the list. Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats are back, and this time they’re unleashing…the soundtrack to an imaginary Italian giallo, and it features the voice work of Franco Nero and giallo queen Edwige Fenech?!?!? It’s like the band extracted this work directly from my fever dreams. Nell’ ora blu is unlike anything the band have released; if you’re looking for the psych drenched fuzz rock it’s really nowhere to be found here. But that’s not to say the album isn’t heavy – it’s very heavy, and very cinematic, and very much in keeping with the spirit of those gnarly slashers from the 70s. Best experienced rather than described, so either use the video above to get your rocks off or better yet, just grab this thing because I guarantee it’ll hold a unique place in your collection.

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If any album was gunning hard for the top spot of the month, it’s the sophomore release from Bay area metal outfit The Watchers. Taking their foot ever so slightly off the doom pedal and accelerating the trad metal, Nyctophilia is another meaty dose of everything I love about metal: great rock riffs, killer hooks and anthemic melodies and vocals that soar while maintaining a clear focus on heavy instead of AOR ready friendly claptrap. “I Am the Dark” embodies everything that’s great about this record, so if that track grabs you, do what I did and immediately grab a copy of the vinyl (or CD if that’s your bag…or digital…I’m not your mother, ferchrissakaes), turn this thing up and clear some space – you’re gonna need it when you start your air guitar workout.

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Almost halfway through the year. The surprises and discoveries continue to pile up, so let me know what we missed and what we should be on the lookout for and we’ll see you in June.

Until next month, keep it heavy…keep it safe.

— Chris