The 424th edition of the Nine Circles Playlist is on their fifth round of the new Megadeth with small breaks for the new performance video from Opeth…there are thoughts, but I’ll share them next week in the Jan 2026 catch-up, with a full review once the vinyl arrives (yeah, we like it here). In the meantime I’m already sitting with my first serious EOY contender in the wicked Ectovoid and their churning death, and having traipsed through our current promo pile there’s a lot more great slamming metal to come.

And like clockwork another massive winter storm is about to hit the Northeast, so I’m putting you in the capable hands of the rest of the 9C crew. They’ve got Bosse de Nage and The Silver, both releasing a new album shortly, some new Exhumed, and the perfect amount of black metal from Bergtagen and Petrichor. There’s more, but you need something to do buried underneath all this snow so you know what to do…

Get listening. Stay safe. See you next week.

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– Chris