It’s a quick one for the 330th edition of the Nine Circles Playlist because the hell week ended with an earthquake here in NY and with only a few days until the solar eclipse blinds everybody I’m putting my headphones on, blasting the new Rezn single and the latest Witch Vomit album under the covers until it’s over.
The rest of the 9C staff have a bevy of great picks as well, but I’m too tired to post them here so you’ll have to be surprised by listening to the playlist below. Trust me: plenty of good stuff lies within…
I honestly cannot remember the last time the inbox was this full on a Monday. Did I miss something? Yeah. Probably.
I’ve been looking for some new black metal recently, so let’s drop in a couple items from that realm. First, Grand Rapids product Hellish Torment shared details surrounding their self-titled debut album. That’s set for an April 26 release and you can listen to “Dead And Rotting” here.
I Prevail and Halestorm announced a co-headlining tour this coming July and August, kicking off in Raleigh. Various presales start tomorrow and, you guessed it, general sales start this coming Friday. Here’s the link you’ll need.
Benighted unveiled a new single today, titled “Nothing Left to Fear”, which features Oli Peters from Archspire. That track is taken from Ekbom, their new album set for an April 12 release through Season of Mist.
And let’s wrap up with Blighted Eye and their new video for “In Enmity”. That track is taken from an upcoming new full-length, details of which appear to be on the horizon. As always, we’ll stay tuned!
If I wanted to, I could probably name at least four records released in the first five week of 2024 that stand a very, very good chance of making my end of year list. What I’m getting at is I guess the year is off to a great start, what with new music from an invigorated Exhorder, a new single from In Flames, and my love for the debut album by Mean Mistreater. And damn if the first single from Kerry King and his post Slayer gig doesn’t bring the goods! Mark Osegueda sounds like Tom Ararya possessed in the best possible way.
And that’s just the kickoff to the 322nd edition of the Nine Circles Playlist. You see what I did there, using kickoff to play into this is Super Bowl weekend? I know…classic.
There’s plenty more where that came from…the rest of the staff brought the blitz (I know…I kill me!) with new music from Necrot and Borknagar; an alternate version of a new Enslaved track; some dirty DIY black metal from Keys to the Steal Gate and Mystic Doors; some anguish-gaze from State Faults and some classic Mastodon wedged in between more surprises. Oh, and did I maybe put a killer live Black Sabbath performance at the end of the playlist? Maybe????
When this comes out I’ll be 49 fucking years old. One goddamn year away from being half a century old. I haven’t been listening to metal for quite as long, but it’s close, you know? I gave quite a bit of thought about simply punting the playlist picks and just forcing all my favorite music down your throats. But I suppose age begets some kind of patience and humility, and besides…I’ll be doing that to my family all day. So maybe I’ll just sprinkle some aggressive favorites throughout and let you suss out which ones they are in this, the 234th edition of the Nine Circles Playlist.
I’m not going to do the usual gang of idiots round up (that’s a reference to Mad Magazine, the crew here all rule); but I’ll mention that folks seems to be pretty hot on new music from Artificial Brain, Gwar, Amon Amarth, Benighted and Origin. Find that inside plus a ton more music to get your weekend in the proper gear ratio.
Home from Boston early enough to knock out a Canto? Not bad at all.
Leading off, we have new material for Capra. Here is the video for “Red Guillotine”, a track taken from In Transmission, which dropped last year through Blacklight and Metal Blade. As an aside, be sure to catch them on the road with Whores and Bummerall through this month.
Heilung are releasing their third full-length album on August 19th through Season of Mist, titled Drif. Along with this news, they released a video teaser for a track titled “Anoana”, which can be seen and heard here.
Black metal solo artist Hulder is releasing The Eternal Fanfare MLP through 20 Buck Spin this coming July, and today unveiled the artwork, track list, and most importantly the first single, “Sylvan Awakening”. July tour dates with Skeleton are on the horizon as well.
Let’s close with the new video from Benighted for “Casual Piece of Meat”. It’s pretty damn wild. That’s another sample from their 2020 album, Obscene Repressed, which is out through Season of Mist. If you need to round out your day with some deathgrind, this is a good place to start.
Nine Circles 