byzantine

CANTO: The Absence, Byzantine, Autarkh, and More

CoreyLeave a comment

I am totally overwhelmed with shit to do today, so let’s hustle this thing out.

  • We’ll start with Byzantine, who have launched a new website, as well as a web series that will premiere this summer titled “Pick A Side”. Check out this teaser video. Sounds a like a pretty cool concept. They’ll also be on tour this summer to celebrate their 21st anniversary. You can find a link to that stuff at their new website as well.
  • And then we have some new videos to share. Let’s start with The Absence, and their new clip for “Black Providence”. That’s the third track taken from Coffinized, which is set for a June 25th release through M-Theory Audio. Pre-order that album here.
  • Do you like beer as much as you like metal? Then you might want to check out Vox&Hops Brewtal North America. Participating breweries will be working with bands to release unique, collaborative brews… and this is exactly what I need in my life right now. Learn more here, there are some pretty awesome names involved.
  • Have you ever felt the need to witness a McDonald’s themed metal band live? Well, now is your chance. Mac Sabbath is hitting the road across the United States starting in late August. Not entirely sure what to do with this information… but that’s probably the point.
  • And we’ll close with the new video from Autarkh for “Alignment”. That’s another one taken from Form In Motion, which dropped earlier this year through Season of Mist.

“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– cmb

CANTO: Helloween, Byzantine, Alluvial, and More

CoreyLeave a comment

Anybody buy anything fun on this wonderful Bandcamp Friday?

“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– cmb

Best of 2017: Chris’s Honorable Mention List

Chris4 Comments

9C 2017 EOY Header Image

Hello there, online metal community.  How you holding up?  List fatigue setting in yet?  If so sorry: this is in no way going to help. My first year writing for Nine Circles resulted in listening to over 500 albums – I won’t even begin to pretend they all got a fair shake, but they all got at least one listen.  The sheer glut of music that passed through my ears was like an awakening, helping me to better understand what it was music did for me, what I needed it to do for me.  I found albums that mesmerized on first listen only to fade quickly, and albums I initially dismissed only to find their hooks in me months later, and it’s these surprise revelations that keep me listening, keep me writing, and keep me so engaged with this beast we call metal.

You’d think doing a Top 25 would be sufficient to cover all the bases, but it feels like it doesn’t even make a dent into the great music that sustained me over the course of the year.  And so, if you’ll indulge me, here’s an extra 15 albums that warrant honorable mention.  Think of them as #26-40 (hey, if Decibel can do it…), in any order you like, though they’re alphabetical below.  Let’s dig in…   Continue reading →

Looking Back on the Tracks: Revisiting Chris’s 2017 Anticipated Records

ChrisLeave a comment

railways tracks

Looking backward, what’s interesting isn’t so much how the albums I selected back in January as part of Nine Circles’ 2017 Metal Forecast held up (or didn’t), but how what I was looking for in music at the beginning of 2017 changed and mutated as the year went from bad to worse, from televised and networked insanity to personal tragedy and a gaze into the abyss that was closer than I had ever anticipated at this point in my life.   Revisiting the three albums that actually came out in 2017 now it’s striking how different the things I first imagined would be the draw fell to the wayside as new priorities and impact points made themselves evident.

We look back, and never see what we expect to, I guess.   Continue reading →

The Nine Circles Playlist Vol. 20: EOY Edition (12.4.2017)

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NINE-CIRCLES_LOGO-Light Background_SQUARE

Since we are closing in on the final few weeks of the year and ‘best of’ list season has begun, for this edition of the Nine Circles Playlist each of us picked a select few of our favorite songs from 2017. Some of these are from albums that didn’t quite hit the mark, as a whole, but had that one particular song or set of songs that warranted an extra high play count. And some of these have been included here even though you may see them again in list form — or maybe not, only time will tell. As usual, expect a wide variety of picks contained in this playlist so, grab a cup of coffee and journey through this collection with us. Oh and feel free to voice your opinions in the comment section to tell us why or why not these songs ruled or didn’t. Continue reading →