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Scholar of the First Sin: Hera’s Best of 2020

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Best of 2020

If you remember from last year, I had this to say as I closed my 2019 EOY list:

In the meantime, 2020 looks to be tumultuous as well, but things are looking up, as I have music to look forward to and scream about at some point. Maybe, at the end of the year, I can tell you if I have succeeded in making more selective choices in music.

2020 gave us a roundhouse kick to the collective bollocks, didn’t it? In my case, it kicked me in the face and didn’t let me listen to anything – this pandemic has been bad for my mental health, and it didn’t help that grad school has continued to essentially take all my time and joy away from me. After September of this year, I just went off the radar musically and I found – much to my detriment – that I could only listen to albums I had originally invested a lot of time in. As such, my favorite albums this year are all touchstones of comfort, albums that I enjoyed heavily throughout the year. However, there is an album that made its way through these touchstones and was able to move to a spot that I didn’t think it would reach.

Welcome back to the pit of despair that has exacerbated my depression EOY list season!

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The Nine Circles Playlist Vol. 129 (5.16.2020)

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playlist - mixtape

Welcome to another Saturday morning playlist. This week I’m subjecting you to ska punk (blame Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater) and blessing you with new Misery Signals, Ian has you covered with the Mrs. Piss debut, and for once I’m not the one throwing The Mountain Goats in here. Check it out under the cut.

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– Vincent

The Nine Circles Playlist Vol. 116 (2.15.2020)

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playlist - mixtape

Howdy y’all and welcome to another Saturday morning playlist. This week, I went and saw Dashboard Confessional again so you know what that means, we’ve got all the new singles to keep you covered, plus classic Blind Guardian and Crowbar cuts, and because our Fearless Leader is who he is, just a little Merle Haggard to round things out. It’s a full house of picks this time around, so check all that out and more at the link below.

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– Vincent

Best of 2017: Hera’s List – Woes of Research

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9C 2017 EOY Header Image

We’re stoked to feature Hera Vidal, purveyor of all things heavy and writer/deep metal researcher for sites like Broken Amp and Metal Bandcamp here as a featured guest presenting her Top Albums of 2017.  Hopefully we’ll see her pop up here again in 2018.  Until then, take it away, Hera! 

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2017 was a fantastic year for metal. However, this means that I now have another pile of albums to look into that I probably missed. The struggle to keep up with releases is real, you guys.

Anyway, it’s list season!

Now, there is some criteria for me to decide my top albums of the year, and they usually revolve around one key factor: I have not written about them, whether they are planned drafts or have been published elsewhere. That means albums like E, Berdreyminn, and Codex Omega – which I enjoyed – and a bunch of black metal albums are not going to be on this list.

With that in mind, here is a list of 10 albums I enjoyed in 2017. If you think I missed one, please let me know via Twitter and/or any way you can get ahold of me.   Continue reading →