I’ve been a Pokémon fan for more than 25 years. I’ve followed the main game series across six different platforms, watching as its original Red and Blue versions gave way to Gold and Silver and eventually, uh… Sword and Shield… as the monster roster ballooned to more than 1,000 unique creatures. (Catch ‘em all, I regrettably never have.) The games have all started to feel a bit samey, but there’s just something there that keeps me coming back.
This, I realize, is a bit of a strange way to intro a piece that is, ostensibly, about Six Feet Under and their new album, Killing for Revenge, but… it’ll make sense shortly, I promise.
Welcome back, friends! It’s been a minute since we did one of these. As you can probably surmise from the title, March… got away from us a bit, to put it as politely as possible. But fear not! When there is bad album art, there will be bad album art posts here at Nine Circles…at some point.
Now is that point. And boy, oh boy, did we have some bad album art in March and April. As a make good, I’m bringing you the best/worst from BOTH months here in this post. So let’s not waste any more time… here they are!
Welcome back, kids! It’s time for everyone’s favorite weekly segment here at Nine Circles: the post where we show you just how much new stuff you’re gonna get to cram in your earholes over the next seven days to keep up with #MetalInternet! That’s right, our fearless leader Josh is on a well-deserved vacation, so you’ve got moi this week for Initial Descent. And heyyyyyy buddy, do we have some tasty new releases coming your way…
We start with the mighty High on Fire, who return after… wait… six years? Holy hell, time flies. In any case, Matt Pike & Co. will drop their latest full-length, Cometh the Storm, via MNRK Heavy. Next up are Washington legends, Melvins! They’re back with their latest effort, Tarantula Heart, and it’s sure to be every bit as scuzzy, experimental, and… well, Melvins, as you can expect. After that, we’ve got a favorite among the Top Brass of this here blog: The Wraith! Two years after the death of singer Davey Bales, the Los Angeles deathrockers are back with new singer Harley Mace, and a new album, Ghost March, which we’re all quite over the moon about. Finally, Montreal noise merchants BIG|BRAVE are back, too! (Seriously, I picked a terrific week to cover for Josh, didn’t I?) Their latest, A Chaos of Flowers, is out via Thrill Jockey.
But hey, you know how these posts go: the four albums above represent just the very tip of the new release iceberg for the week. Want more? Click on through and check out what else is in store!
Let me tell y’all something right off the bat: I was excited as all hell when I saw Skraeckoedlan‘s name pop up in our promo queue earlier this year. You see, wayyyyy back in the nascent days of this blog — the Swedish quartet dropped an album called Sagor, for which Corey and I promptly fell head over heels. It was a positively rifftastic journey — one that I decided, then and there, had earned the band at the very least a courtesy listen to any and all future releases.
I called dibs on their new full-length, Vermillion Sky, the minute I saw it come through our inbox. And then… well, at least initially, I didn’t love it! Now, I’ve since come around on the album considerably — It’s actually pretty great! Who knew first impressions aren’t always the best ones? — but not without a pretty fundamental reevaluation of my own critical process. Am I going to explain? You’re goddamned right, I am. Let’s jump in.
Fucking hell, how is it already the end of February? I feel like I just did one of these things. Okay, I guess I did just do one of these things, but still. Time, man. It’s fuckin’ weird.
In any case, February’s over, so it’s time to look back at all the glorious bad album art the month had to offer. And man, oh man, did we have some bad album art to choose from. It’s too early in the year for there to be this much suck in the world. But suck, the artwork did, and thus… choose some favorites, I did. And now, here they are!
Nine Circles 