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 eagerly awaiting the summer in May 2025.

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Is it damning with faint praise if I say The Shit Ov God is the best Behemoth album since The Satanist? I’m not saying it’s a great album, but despite the dumb title this is the most focused I’ve heard Nergal in a long time. Songs like the title track and “Lvciferaeon” (seriously, I wish we could stop with the dumb spelling – you’re rebelling against God, not grammar) bring the blackened death metal with a laser focus on riffs that hearkens back to my favorite period of the band around the turn of the millennia, when Thelma.6 and Zos Kia Cultus were bringing Nergal & Co. wider recognition. Things get properly epic with “To Drown The Svn in Wine” and there’s nary an ode to country or goth to be found. let’s hope this is the start of a climb back into the divine light, or however he would spell it…

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If this is what you get when you combine folks from Nails, (formerly) Vastum, Ulthar and Undeath, all I can say is “yes, please”. Blood Monolith are pretty much doing what their name implies: The Calling Of Fire is a vicious, bludgeoning wall of death metal, raining down filthy riffs and a wicked snare sound across 28 minutes of pure fire. From the opening moments of “Trepanation Worm” to the closing moments of “Pyroklesis” there’s barely a moment to breathe on The Calling Of Fire, but the fantastic production and mix job embraces a clear modern sound that allows all the old school influences to shine through. I can’t tell if its the insane drumming of Aidan Tydings-Lynch or the pitch perfect vocals of Shelby Lermo that’s making this hit so hard for me, but either way this is one of the essential death metal releases in 2025.

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In a perfect world this would probably be a full review written by Ian, who I know is in the hole for Callous Daoboys, having written about their previous LP and EP and included both on his end of year write-ups. Alas, instead you get me who was lukewarm on Celebrity Therapist and dug God Smiles… for what it was but barely returned to it. The good news is that despite still feeling like the band owe pretty much their entire sound to the moments Greg Puciato would inject clean vocals into The Dillinger Escape Plan, I Don’t Want To See You In Heaven is easily their best effort, a loose conceptual album that emphasizes the progressive schizophrenic elements of their style in a way that, even if it borrows heavily from other bands is done with a zeal and earnest attack that I appreciate. Songs like the octave blasting “Full Moon Guidance” (complete with hand claps!) and the boom bap drum programming that opens “Lemon” show the musical extremes the band can travel confidently in. And while I bristle at the odd world music cliche that opens “Two-Headed Trout” and the unintelligible tribal bullshit that permeates “Idiot Temptation Force” the rest of the album comes through shining.

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I love when a band sneaks up and just surprises you. If you’r relying on Spotify and other services to inform you of great metal, you’re missing out on Leather Hearse, which looks for now to just be on Bandcamp. So get your ass over there and grab Burn In Heaven I ASAP, because holy Jesus this is incredible. Created as a collaborative project by Tannon Penland of Loincloth and Gauchiste, he roped in some killer partners like drummer Hannes Grossmann who’s worked with bands like, ummm…how about Necrophagist and Blotted Science? But that’s not what you’re getting here. What you DO get on tracks like “Swine Hearse” and “Aura Jaundice” is technically technical, but not in a way that calls attention to itself like the previously mentioned bands did. At a brief 14 minutes this feels like a taste of something bigger to come, but when the taste is this sweet I can’t wait to hear whatever comes next.

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It took a little for The Loss to sink in. That sounds like a line from a sappy novel, but it’s the truth when it comes to the latest full length from Calgary, Alberta’s Mares Of Thrace. The duo hit it out of the park with 2022’s The Exile, and the pronounced hardcore/sludge vibes here took a moment to sink it. Never a band to shy away from difficult thematic content, Thérèse Lanz’s incredible roar grips The Loss’s songs stages and refuses to let go. Accompanied by drummer Casey Rogers, Lanz delves deep into the grieving process, finding rage, unfathomable sorrow and manages by the album’s ending to find some kind of solace and acceptance, if not necessarily peace. I’m glad to have The Loss end on such a hopeful note, but it’s the fury of tracks like “The Second Stage: Denial” that keep me coming back again and again.

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Coming just ahead of its release this Friday, it says something that Rivers Of Nihil are dropping an eponymous album after 15 years and a fourth record that – to my ears – left me wondering if the magic I found on Where Owls Know My Name was more a fluke than anything else. Early singles like Rivers Of Nihil’s opening track “The Sub-Orbital Blues” assuaged those fears: if anything, the band have stretched further into their prog leanings, and tracks like “Criminals” and “American Death” show the Pennsylvania technical death metal unit haven’t abandoned just ripping it up when necessary, either. Also, c’mon: that cover is incredible. Don’t discount how powerful a striking album cover can be.

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Okay, truth be told I’m less enamored with the cover art for Alone In A World Of Wounds (it’s fine), the latest solo offering from Steve Von Till. But the music? Ah, now there’s a very different story. The former Neurosis guitarist/vocalist continues plumbing the depths of a dark, foreboding folk sound but this is far from “guy in the woods naming on a broken steel string acoustic” even if you (okay, well me) might be apt to listen to Von Till in that very location, preferably with a fire going. Tracks like “Horizons Undone” feature subtle electronics, and opener “The Corpse Road” fills the soundscape with strings and woodwinds to flit like a cold wind across and through Von Till’s introspective lyrics. I’m still new to SVT’s solo output, having been turned onto A Life Unto Itself from Josh and Corey only a few weeks ago. But there’s an immediate warmth to Alone In A World Of Wounds that draws deeper into its tintype past, and I expect to return again and again over the course of the year and beyond.

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I’ve been talking about the killer year Profound Lore has been having so far this year between Ancient Death and Blood Monolith, but let’s not forget that other, smaller labels are doing their part to ensure I never forget the special curation a boutique label can bring. Like Learning Curve Records, for instance. Earlier this month Josh raved about Bronson Arm (had I reviewed it there’d be almost no difference besides these silly parenthetical asides) and now I’m here to sing the bruised praises of Tonguecutter, the hardcore noise rock trio out of  Muskegon, MI whose debut full-length Minnow completely bowled me over. 31 minutes of crushing noise rock that slips in and out of sludgy hardcore when it needs to, super-tight rhythmically and with a knockout vocal performance from Chantal Roeske who also handles the ferocious buzz of the guitars. Half of the songs are re-worked from their 2023 Tupperware Party EP, but the new versions have a bark and bite the original EP only hinted at. If you’re not knocked over by the time “Urgency”, “Dust Collector” and then “Tupperware” have their way with you, I don’t know what to say…

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We will never fully grasp what Year Of No Light are capable of. I don’t think any of is here had the post-everything metal collective out of Bordeaux, France releasing Les Maîtres Fous, a 30-minute live drone EP that is both a summation of and response to the controversial 1955 “docufiction” from noted director Jean Rouch (you can watch it here). 10 minutes in I was disturbed; by the end I was hypnotized. Released by Pelagic, I guess “post-metal” is as good a tag as any, but don’t expect YONL to sound anything like their stablemates: the band has always bucked convention to release some of the most striking, challenging music to wear the label of “metal”, as slippery a label as that is. I urge you though to check it out, you’ll come away better than you were before.

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May was a killer month – lots of incredible music clogging my already substantial year end list building. 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