It was an honor joining the Nice Circles team this year. I started a series of posts called A Headbanger’s Journey that I hope to continue into 2018. Late to the party, I bought an absurd amount of music at the end of the year, much of it from the excellent Nine Circles coverage and I’m just now coming up for breath. In 2016 I went back in time to investigate the early death metal classics of the late 80’s/early 90’s and this year, I did the same with classic punk and hardcore. Both of those genres inform my current listening and are reflected in this list. So, let’s see where the rubber hits the road. Continue reading
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Best of 2017: Hawkmoth

Australian post-metal / doom stalwarts Hawkmoth just released their second album Godless Summit via Black Bow Records and is the first part in a planned two part opus. In a matter of just four tracks this album goes from lonely and desolate landscapes to crushing emotional heaviness and back again with ease but it’s the restraint the band shows throughout that really pushes Godless Summit past its predecessor, Calamitas. It would’ve been easy to relent and just explode into a cacophony of doom in several places throughout but they keep it together and consistent for an intense yet even listen. The band, collectively, sent us their best of 2017 list so let’s get to it.
Donuts & CANTO: Eluveitie, Maryland Deathfest, Baroness and more!

June 20, 2017
Good morning, it’s time to metal. Here’s some news you might have missed from yesterday:
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- Leading off, Eluveitie — or as some may know them “Chrigel Glanzmann’s Quest to Lose as Many Band Members as Humanly Possible” — has announced the long-awaited sequel to the acoustic Evocation album. The second installment, Evocation II: Pantheon, drops August 18 on Nuclear Blast, about six years after everyone stopped caring.
Donuts & CANTO: Entombed, Arch Enemy, Gojira and more!

May 23, 2017
Good morning, it’s time to metal. Here’s some news you might have missed from yesterday:
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- Leading off, the battle for the rights to Entombed‘s band name appears to have been decided in favor of the non-“A.D.” contingent of the band — a.k.a. everyone other than possible-Tolkien-dwarf L-G Petrov. Hopefully that’ll be the end of this almost-as-stupid-as-the-two-Queensrÿches saga.
Donuts & CANTO: Coliseum, Russian Circles, Arcadea and more!
April 18, 2017
Good morning, it’s time to metal. Here’s some news you might have missed from yesterday:
- Leading off, it looks like frontman Ryan Patterson has left Coliseum to start a new project called Fotocrime. More power to him for pursuing his interests, but…goddammit if true. I need to go play Anxiety’s Kiss like ten times in a row.