Best of 2022: Vincent’s List

Best of 2022

I think that we all have a tendency to give more personhood to years than they deserve. “So long 2022!” is the defining refrain this January, and I know I will be among those more than glad to see last year in the rear view mirror, but 2022 didn’t purposefully single me out to do me wrong. The passage of time is like a natural disaster; we give human names to hurricanes, but a hurricane doesn’t have malicious intent. It simply is. 2023 will be a year that is as well. It will have good days and bad days in store for me just like its predecessor. So instead of imploring for something better and pretending the bad days are all behind me now, I will start this year as is my tradition to start every year, and say only this:

I am gonna make it through this year if it kills me.

You, of course, didn’t come to me for my half-baked philosophical ideas. You came here because you are interested in what it was that I listened to and loved this year. Thank you for that, sincerely. However small the number might be, the thought that there are people who take genuine interest in what I talk about is what keeps me wanting to talk about it more. 2022 certainly gave me a lot more to talk about than in previous years, and brought with it some of my favorite discoveries in recent memory. Some of these you’ve heard me mention more than once, some I haven’t had the pleasure to yet, all are worthy of being reminisced on here. Read about them all below.

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Best of 2022: Ian’s Medium Heavy Picks

Best of 2022

So, I had an idea for a new list this year.  Because, obviously, I don’t write enough of them.  It just so happened that a lot of my favorite things I listened to this year didn’t really feel like heavy metal in a technical sense, but they definitely felt like they were on the fringes of it.  They’re definitely not metal albums, but they’re also not non-metal albums, you know what I mean? What’s that? You don’t? Yeah, I uh…I don’t think I know what I mean either but let’s just go with it. Like a nice medium roast coffee, these albums straddle the nice fine line between heavy and not without leaping back and forth from one side to the other, and they happen to also be some of my favorite listens this year.

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The Nine Circles Playlist Vol. 259 (11.26.2022)

For those of you who celebrate it, welcome back from the throes of mass turkey consumption, of stuffing annihilation, and of pie decimation. For the rest of you, simply welcome back. I got a huge Thanksgiving gift when I learned Elder released their latest album Innate Passage a day early on Bandcamp, and then it just kept coming when I finally got to hear the totality of the new Spiritworld album. Both albums are putting serious crimps in my already drafted end of year list, so let’s kick off with them for this, the 259th Nine Circles Playlist.

The rest of the gang managed to pry themselves off the couch and offer up the usual assortment of metal maladies to get your body in shape for the holiday rush. We’ve got Jade, Fvnerals, live Der Weg Einer Freiheit, new Nothingness and Shedfromthebody. We’ve got a big ol’ epic from The Otolith, tracks from Esquela Grind, Intranced, and Reeking Aura. You want a little more moody and a little less extreme? Okay: we’ve got you dialed in with some Kathryn Mohr, some Silversun Pickups, and for the countryheads out there even a little slinky funk courtesy of Paul Cauthen. And one of the best bands in the world to close it out.

Get listening. Stay safe. See you next week.

Chris

The Nine Circles Playlist Vol. 255 (10.29.2022)

Spooky season is here again. I don’t know why but around the 9C Top Brass chat it’s been a lot of talk of classic black metal, particularly Emperor so I’m kicking this week off with a classic from their classic In the Nightside Eclipse. But damn, there’s also a new Katatonia album on the way and I have the receipts for the night a bunch of us got drunk listening to The Great Cold Distance and buying out the remaining vinyl copies on Amazon, so we gotta include new single “Atrium.”

And after that? Well, the crew contributes a bunch of new and classic killer music. How about new music from Avandra, Veilburner, Imprecation, VHS, Become the Watcher, Kreator, Birds in Row, Faetooth, Brutus, toe., Satanic Tea Co., and so much more?

Get listening. Stay safe. See you next week.

Chris

The Nine Circles Playlist Vol. 100

playlist - mixtape

Well folks, this is it. The 100th edition of our weekly mixtape. This week, we’re kicking things off with the trippy new video for Blood Incantation’s new single (!!!) plus live footage of another song off the upcoming Hidden Histories of the Human Race. I’m still waaaay deep in my screamo binge, and Josh reps my local boys in Teeth, who you should all be listening to way more than you currently are. Thanks a ton for checking this out enough to keep it going this long. We appreciate the hell out of ALL of you.

Now, let’s party.

– Vincent