Nine Circles

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: it’s a new year (December was all EOY) and 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 ringing the new year bell in January 2025.

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The sprawling black metal madness of Barshasketh was one of the first things I got introduced when I found myself in the heights of the metal social media community and #metalbandcampgiftclub, and their Ophidian Henosis album remains a killer album by any measurement. In my humblest of opinions new album Antinomian Asceticism blows their previous output away, and is even more icy and full throated black metal – something I didn’t think was possible. You can dig deep into the band’s philosophies about the blasphemy of Morality as an absolute ruling from a Christian god, or you can be like me and just luxuriate in some incredible black metal landing so early in the year.

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Is January usually this packed with good metal? Is it just that I wasn’t digging through the promo piles this early in the year? No matter, because Century have blessed me with some fantastic trad metal to kick the year off in style. Even more impressive: the Swedish band is a duo, and between Staffan Tengnér and Leo Ekström there is some crafty licks afoot, with opener “Sacrifice” and brooding galloper “The Chains of Hell” sounding like the best of what was happening in the dark, dank corners of the 80s. This really scratches my nostalgia itch without sounding like a cheap gimmick – I just went and bought the band’s entire discography and you should, too.

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If you’re a fan of stoner metal, you could do a lot worse than subscriber to Ripple Music’s subscription service on Bandcamp: getting every single release (plus discounts on physical merch) yields metric tons of treasures, like this, the third full length from UK trio Dunes. You already have my attention with the trio format, but Land Of The Blind is exactly what I love about the genre, terrific, mammoth sized grooves in the riffs, drums that shift the tectonic plates of the earth, and vocals that make you want to sing along whether you’re in the car or walking through the office halls with your headphones on, forgetting you have a meeting in a few minutes because “One Eyed Dog” is so damn good. Maybe that’s just me, though…you’d have to ask my co-workers.

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It’s my party and I’ll double-down if I want to, because Dunes wasn’t the only great thing to come out of Ripple Music this month. Godzillionaire may have album art that screams something more extreme, but rest assured: Diminishing Returns is blues-drenched hard, dark rock of the highest order. There’s a distinct aura of menace across the album’s tracks, and songs like “Drowning All Night” and the more boogie-flavored riffing of, well, “Boogie Johnson” will have your feet moving even as your snap your head to the stinging guitars and vocalist Mark Hennessey’s (of Kansas indie rock band Paw fame) signature vocals. This has been a constant spin in my corner of the 9C office.

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I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the biggest fan of Austria’s Harakiri For The Sky, although on paper I should be the perfect audience for the band’s increasingly post-to-the-point-of-gone progressive black metal. So color me shocked that I’m enjoying Scorched Earth as much as I am. The production from M.S. who also handles all the instrumentation is warmer than albums past, and the songs themselves present as more thoughtful and melancholic, though that doesn’t take away from the righteous fury of songs like “Keep Me Longing” and the terrific “Too Late For Goodbyes” which features Svalbard, a band many of us on the site like quite a bit. I’ll still chuckle at the sadboi vibes of a track like “Without You I’m Just A Sad Song” but my head will bang just the same.

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You didn’t need to tell me Labyrinth hail from Italy; I could hear it in the first few seconds of “Welcome Twilight” the opening track to the band’s 10th LP In The Vanishing Echoes Of Goodbye. This is progressive power metal as only the Italians can do it, and that is NOT a complaint, but a compliment – I recall our former power metal King Frank telling me about 1998’s Return To Heaven Denied and have been a fan since then. Over the top drama, incredible keyboards and soaring vocals (seriously, Roberto Tiranti is phenomenal), but most of all never sacrificing the metal for the power, this is an incredibly fun ride of an album that sounds great – more power metal needs to be this clear and full frequency.

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Some bands in the death-doom genre only talk about riffs so deep and low they make your bowels rumble. Onirophagus gets right up and puts a festering, quivering Lovecraftian sphincter right on their album cover. The band mean business is what I’m sayin’, and Revelations From The Void is the proof in the pudding, to put a cap on all the fecund metaphors. When the tempo ramps up on opener “Hollow Valley” it’s a certified banger, and vocalist Paingrinder sounds possessed across the entire album. I need a little dynamics and experimenting in my death-doom, and by the time the 16-minute closer “Stargazing Into The Void” had its way with me I knew Onirophagus was going to be sticking around for the long haul. Not normally my go-to speed or genre, but this album is something special.

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Okay, who dares to bring me a band whose name is also the name of a Darkthrone album? Plaguewielder is another duo (according to Bandcamp; they’re a trio according to the promo) trading in black metal-isms, and In Dust & Ash sounds like a mix of post-rock, gothic rock, and yeah…a little melodic black and roll thrown in for good measure. It all makes for extremely listenable music: I’m quite taken with the propulsive attack of single “Empty Nights”. As for the rest of In Dust & Ash it’s a lot of mid-tempo, brooding metal that touches on a lot of styles, so if your bag is emotive variety, this will fulfill that need.

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Here’s the thing about Vortex Sutra, at least according to these ears. Think thrash and early metal filtered through someone who really, really likes electronic music, but along the lines of Tangerine Dream or even Kraftwerk rather than harsh noise units like Prurient or others. Glimpse Into The Transcendental is progressive, occasionally heavy, but all the time a pretty unique experience. Lot of jazz fusion coming through as well. You can judge for yourself by checking out the two available tracks on Bandcamp – for whatever reason, the band opted against any streaming or digital sales, opting to go the physical route although I think I saw on their Facebook page that they plan to release this digitally…in 2028. The choice is yours.

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It’s a new year, and I can’t believe we’re nearly in halfway point of the decade already. As always the surprises and discoveries continue to pile up, so let me know what we missed and what we should be on the lookout for.

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

— Chris