My name is Josh Thieler. I love music. I love metal. I love lists. I say many things about metal music that I love in list form below. You know what this is. I don’t need an introduction paragraph. Continue reading
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Best of 2016, Q2: Josh Thieler’s List
2016 has been an incredible year for music. So much came out in the first quarter that I never could narrow it down enough to name any favorites. For this second quarter, I was determined to compile this list if it killed me. There probably would be more on this list, but a lot of records came out in the final week of June that I will probably sneak into my Q3 list. Through much internal wrestling, tears, and over 1,000 hours of listening to new records, I have finally been able to come up with my list of favorites for 2nd quarter 2016. Continue reading
Album Review: Cough – “Still They Pray”
![12 Jacket (Gatefold - Two Pocket) [GD30OB2-N]](https://ninecirclesblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/stilltheypray_1500.jpg?w=300&h=300)
Cough’s Still They Pray will sound familiar to fans of sludgey, doomy music. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Cough plays a style of metal that resists wild experimentation and rewards consistency. It’s difficult, after all, for a band to write slow, dreary songs that aren’t boring; or to play loosely and nimbly and be crushingly heavy; or to wring something vital out of a sound that many others have visited and re-visited since the days of Black Sabbath. Cough does all these things, and quite well. This album is so absorbing that you won’t care if other bands can do these things, too. Continue reading
Initial Descent: June 3, 2016
Somehow, it’s June already. Where the hell’s this year gone? Honestly, I’m all for this; the sooner 2016’s over and done with, the better, in my book.
But anyway, interesting week this week. We’ve got a couple of big-ish name releases — an EP from Candlemass, albums from Dark Funeral and Cough, etc. — but then we’ve also got some others from some absolutely HILARIOUSLY named bands. Like? Oh, I don’t know…a new demo from a band called Anal Depression, (yes) one from Clitorodectomía, (also, yes) you name it. Apparently you can never run out of try-too-hardiness in metal. Anyway, enough of that — here’s what’s on tap for this week:
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Album Review: Keeper / Sea Bastard Split
Clocking in at 34 minutes for two songs, this transatlantic split record from California’s Keeper and the U.K.’s Sea Bastard will please fans of plodding, evil doom metal. It sounds like the two bands are competing to see who can stretch out their song more, as one side of the split is slow and the other is…slower. Both sides of the album meditate on the same riff for eight to ten minutes at a time, turning it over, inspecting it, wringing out every bit of feeling they can from it. It takes patience to listen to this split, but it’s worth it. Continue reading
Nine Circles 