agrypnie – Nine Circles

Best of 2021: Corey’s List

January 11, 2022January 10, 2022CoreyLeave a comment

Is that it? Am I the last one? Dang. Again. Wait, maybe one more to come… Anyway, I guess I’ll start this off on my soapbox as always, by noting that I truly cannot comprehend where we are as a society. Well, I suppose I can, which is even more frustrating. If 2020 wasn’t a brutal enough year (not in a good way), 2021 seemed to serve as an appropriate encore. Seemingly everything we experience in life has been weaponized for political gain in one way or another, a global pandemic has been widely accepted as an endemic thanks, in part, to widespread misinformation, and, just as bluntly, climate disasters resulting from human activity are on the brink of running rampant for the duration of humanity’s remaining existence… however brief that may be. And those are just my three favorite, non-personal, items to discuss in our corner of the universe. It sucks, and I’m burnt out. Optimism has completely faded at this point, and I’m ready to run screaming into the woods. But hey, cheers to 2020, right?!

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Scholar of the First Sin: Hera’s Best of 2021 — The Outliers (Honorable Mentions)

December 15, 2021December 14, 2021Hera1 Comment

Well, well, well. Who would have thought that I would have an honorable mentions list this year? Certainly not me!

Considering that I started giving music well-deserved attention after I was finally free from the shackles of grad school, I was surprised by how quickly I took to listening to new releases as soon as I had the time. This meant that a lot of releases I was interested in were eventually rooted out from my initial list, and I ended up with 24 total albums that I wanted to talk about. However, because I tend to limit my EOY list to 20 – with the exception of last year’s list, which had 10 due to time constraints – I decided to finally commit and make this Honorable Mentions list.

Time to see what landed on the cutting room floor!

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CANTO: Emptiness, Agrypnie, Wardruna, and More

June 24, 2021June 24, 2021CoreyLeave a comment

This is just getting chaotic at this point. Unsustainable will be the word of the year for 2021 in my life. Anyway. What did I miss in the metal world in the past 36 hours?

Emptiness is streaming their full performance from Roadburn Redux. That event took place back in April (yet somehow feels only like yesterday), but is available again at the Season of Mist YouTube channel. This is obviously in support of their latest album, Vide, which I really wish I enjoyed more… but I still need to spend more time with it. Stay tuned.
The Wardruna North American tour that was supposed to happen… this year? Last year? Whatever. It’s been moved to 2022, and they’ve added a couple new dates to the excursion. Those dates are all in October and November, so there’s some time to kill before we get there. That said, this is something I would like to take part in when the time comes.
German post-black metal project Agrypnie have debuted a new track and video ahead of the release of the sixth full-length effort, Metamorphosis. That album is set for a July 30th release through AOP Records (and a few others), but you can check out “Verwüstung” right now.
This is a fun one to toss in the mix today. Ghoul have announced a free livestream this coming Saturday, the 26th, along with the release of a limited edition “Live In The Flesh” VHS. I mean, I know tapes are making a comeback… but I didn’t see VHS tapes doing the same. But who knows!?
And we’ll wrap up with a new music video from Nightfall for “Martyrs of the Cult of the Dead (Agita)”. The link below is the censored version, because I guess the original was released via OnlyFans? What on Earth is even happening anymore.