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 catch up on the loud and heavy from November 2025.
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It’s been 20 years since Bloodbound unsheathed their particular brand of Swedish power metal, and the jump to Napalm Records for Field of Sword brings more sweeping epics of swords (duh) and sorcery, anchored by the Olsson brothers. Vocalist Patrik J. Selleby sounds sharp, a slight grit to his voice that chips away at the genre’s smooth edges, lending bite to tracks like “As Empires Fall” and “Light The Sky.” There are certainly better bands and albums doing this thing, and the closing track with Unleash The Archers was a huge mistake, but I can’t help but dig the aggression on this one.
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At what point does joke become homage only to become the thing it was joking about? Did that make sense? Does Morbikon? I completely forgot this band was a side project of Phil “Landfill” Hall of Municipal Waste and Iron Reagan. I guess that’s a compliment, because I just assumed Lost Within The Astral Crypts was another run-of-the-mill melodic black metal album with some death leanings. Which is totally okay, and totally not a bad thing. Hall’s other bands have a shining clarity to the guitars he transports over here, and the results on “Unending Legions of Baal” and “Masters of Eternal Night” sound razor sharp. You know what? I’m digging this. It sounds crisps, the vocals roar, and the songs are actual songs. Thumbs and Horns Up.
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Is this a Colin band? It sounds like a Colin band. Olde Throne are a black metal band from New Zealand, and sound like they’re 1,000 years old, or at least from the early 00s worship of early 90s second wave back metal. But Megalith, the band’s third album has some real substance in its tremolo riffing and Celtic inspirations. “The Most Elden Days” has a pagan heart I was looking for on the last Saor album, and damn if the flute solo in “Temple of the Sky” didn’t pull on me just a bit. I wish this stuff was a little more visible in the community.
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I can’t believe Ian didn’t review Fleshwork. He reviewed the other two quite favorably, and it was because of him I even checked out Pupil Slicer. Thank god for Ian, in other words. I might have missed out on some of the best grind-y, math-y, noisy death metal of the last 15 years. There’s nothing on Fleshwork to mar the band’s trajectory; Kate Davies continues to be a monster vocally, and their lyrics are as harrowing as ever. Songs like “Heather” and the pummeling “Black Scrawl” smash against the techno dance beat of “White Noise” and emphasize the fact that Pupil Slicer should really be bigger.
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Ragana were one of those bands that excited me as soon as I embraced the larger than my local shop universe of metal over a decade ago. But since the righteous celebration of 2015’s Wash Away and the follow-up You Take Nothing I drifted away from them and the cathartic, folk/wood USBM vibe in general. The fact that Ash Souvenir is a collaborative album the Washington black metal duo and Drowse, a Portland, OR drone artist was too intriguing to ignore, and I’m glad I didn’t. The 17 minutes that make up the four parts of the song “In Eternal Woods” might be the best thing Ragana have ever done, and their marriage of black metal and folk mixed with Drowse’s fine clean voice and droning layers of synths and other instruments make this a fascinating record, one the bring back to the group’s entire catalog.
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I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that there’s a niche of prog dedicated to the all-important Bro base. I’m not sure what to make of the weird blend of styles that collide on Phantom : : Phoenix, the third LP from North Carolina’s Stellar Circuits. It has that InsideOut prog metal thing where “prog” is defined as “lots of djent riffing in odd time signatures with clean vocals” but it also has a heavy nu-metal vibe, like Fred Durst cap-on-backwards vibe? There are bands that do this kind of thing very well (Caligula’s Horse comes to mind) and while there’s nothing overtly terrible about the album – I dig “The War Within”- there’s nothing that really stands out for me, either.
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Here is the dumbest thing you can say and do when an end of year list comes out from a critic or magazine or blog you read. “This is stupid, I don’t even know half those bands.” And then toss it away instead of actually checking out the bands you never heard of. Worst case scenario? You confirm your dumb position and feel mentally superior for a few hours. Best case scenario? You discover something that immediately connects. Like I did when after reading the latest Top 40 from Decibel Magazine I went and listened to Terror Corpse and their debut full length Ash Eclipses Flesh. This is stinking, bowel blasting death metal. It’s grisly and grimy and yet the production is razor sharp and sounds alive and technical and in your face. The Celtic Frost vibes are real, and I cannot get enough of “Gate Zero” and those vocals from outer space.
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Confession: I really wanted to like Voidceremony more than I actually did. I made the effort, I listened to everything, even agreed with the reviews from Ian and Vince. Heck, I grabbed a vinyl of Threads of Unknowing and marveled at the virtuosity like a lot of folks did. But then I stopped listening and went to the next thing, because in the end the songs wouldn’t stick, and all the technical proficiency in the world is just practice exercises if they’re not serving the song. Maybe now after Abditum I’ll have to go back and listen again, though because THIS is what I wanted from the band every time someone ejaculated over the…Tougas of it all. “Seventh Ephemeral Aura” is a triumph of both songwriting AND technical gymnastics, and the less than two minute attack of “Despair of Temporal Existence” is too short to remember anything but instant punishment, and it might be my favorite song of 2025.
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It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t stick a little bit of stoner metal on a Nine Circles article. And honestly I had a lot to work with this month, with solid albums from Wolftooth and Stone Nomads, as well as Black Sabbitch. But Yawning Man has a special place in my heart, especially considering the gift of their collaborative album with Balch earlier this year. Now they’re closing the year out with Pavement Ends, a gorgeous, hazy record that hits a lot more psychedelia than stoner blunt force trauma. I’ve been soaking in the reverb drenched guitars of “Gestapo Pop” for a while now, and there’s no sign of stopping in sight…
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Truly, this year just flew by, and I was not expecting the sheer number of great records to come out so late. Next month might get a pass as we all start building out our end of the year lists in earnest, so consider this your last chance to get your picks and recommendations for what we missed and what we should be on the lookout for.
Until next time, keep it heavy…keep it safe.
— Chris