devin townsend

The Nine Circles Playlist Vol. 388 (05.17.2025)

ChrisLeave a comment
playlist - mixtape

The 388th edition of the Nine Circles Playlist is still reeling from seeing an absolute legend belt out the tunes of his youth like it was 50 years ago, but that’s not stopping us from getting the latest single from Jeremiah Kane out for you ears and eyes. Or some new King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Don’t worry: I start bring the weird heavy next with the EP from Leather Hearse, a band everyone should be checking out.

The 9C crew wrangle in the real extremity, with killer tracks from Imperial Triumphant, a double-shot of some serious industrial murky trap with The Bug, new insane Cryptopsy, the arrival of wicked classic metal from Interceptor, some Mongolian metalcore courtesy of Nine Treasures as well as wrapping things up with new tracks from old friends like Fallujah, Abigail Williams, and Pupil Slicer. There’s more as well (wait until you get to Pig Pen) but you’ll have to dig to find them.

Get listening. Stay safe. See you next week.

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– Chris

Best of 2024: Chris’s Honorable Mentions

Chris1 Comment
Best of 2024

Well, here we are again. I said last year I wouldn’t do another list of honorable mentions because in the end it makes zero difference. I love every single album on this list, and you (or I) can easily swap out anything here with the ones that end up on my “official” (whatever that means) end of year list. It’s the celebration that matters, the joy in sharing what you loved and finding other discoveries that deepen your knowledge and appreciation of the form.

I used to limit this to 15 albums. That’s stupid. There’s so much I connected with this year when it comes to heavy music I want to share as much of it as I can with you1. So enough talk. Let’s dig in, alphabetical order except for the first one, because this is the first year in forever I don’t have Boris in my Top 25 so let’s address that and then get all the other great records out of the way.

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Best of 2024: Hera’s List

Hera1 Comment
Best of 2024

It truly has been quite the year, hasn’t it?

Last year, I supplied a list of 15 albums after I decided that I wanted to be more critical about the music I was listening to, removing metal-adjacent albums from the lists. For this year, I also decided to change the list structure. After all, lists are subjective, and I am allowed to see if something works for me.

You can’t know what will stick to the wall if you don’t decide to experiment for a bit.

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CANTO: Obscura, Devin Townsend, Killswitch Engage, and More

CoreyLeave a comment

Running in the dark? Kinda fun! Running in the dark after your headlamp dies? Significantly less fun! See also: fucking terrifying.

  • Obscura happenings! The German technical death metal outfit are releasing A Sonication, the second of their trilogy concept, on February 7th through Nuclear Blast. Give the video for “Silver Linings” a watch here.
  • You know who I haven’t seen live in way too many years? Devin Townsend. That should be fixed. He’ll be touring North American with TesseracT next May, with the run kicking off on the 2nd in Nashville. Tickets go on sale Friday.
  • Crippled Black Phoenix are celebrating their 20 years with a new double album. Horrific Honorifics Number Two (2) will include a bunch of covers, including this take on Fugazi’s “Blueprint”. While The Wolf Changes Its Fur But Not Its Nature is all about revisiting some of their bedtime ballads. It’s going to be a lot, and it’s all out November 29th through Season of Mist.
  • Yatsu and Wanderer are releasing a split 7-inch EP on December 20th through The Ghost Is Clear Records and Mummified Gasp Records, and we’ve got some samples to share. Here’s Yatsu’s “October Seventh” and Wanderer’s “Glass Chewer”.
  • I’ve been listening to it all day, so you’re going to listen to it now. We’re wrapping up with the new Killswitch Engage track, “Forever Aligned”. Their first album in forever (five years) is out on February 21st through Metal Blade, titled This Consequence. I’m so happy.

“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– cmb

The Nine Circles Playlist Vol. 359 (10.26.2024)

Chris1 Comment
playlist - mixtape

Holy shit what a week of releases. Doesn’t matter what genre; you had some of that G-O-O-D S-H-I-T come out to keep you satisfied. The 359th edition of the Nine Circles Playlist is going to list just a few of them along with some older favorites. To start we got music from just released albums by the likes of Iotunn, Bütcher, and Devin Townsend, not to mention some snotty punk gold from the mighty Amyl and the Sniffers.

The rest of the 9C spun the sonic yarn as well, pitching to the plate new music from The Great Old Ones, Wraith, and Quaalm. The old school is ably represented by Enslaved and Mercyful Fate, and Vince continues to remind me that the new toe will definitely be on my non-metal end of year list (even though he picked a track from an older album).

And because we’re light on picks from the staff and it’s my party, I’m closing out with the title track from the brand spankin’ new Paul Cauthen because you can never, never have enough Big Velvet in your life.

Get listening. Stay safe. See you next week.

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– Chris

The Nine Circles Playlist Vol. 358 (10.19.2024)

Chris2 Comments
playlist - mixtape

Writing this after just getting back from seeing Opeth in Brooklyn on their tour promoting the now even more sadly delayed The Last Will and Testament. Even more sad because holy crap the new songs sound GREAT live. Tribulation supported and while the new stuff sounds good, again allow me to invoke the holy crap for when they brought out “Suspiria De Profundis” off of The Formulas of Death, which was my introduction to the band. Not a bad way to end the night, and not a bad way to kick off the 358th edition of The Nine Circles Playlist.

The rest of the 9C gang covered the bases (I guess both NY teams are in the finals?) with new music from Devin Townsend, Harakiri for the Sky, Cosmic Putrefaction, something called Dimmu BONGir which made me laugh out loud, new power metal from Veonity, Ice Nine Kills getting some Terrifier 3 action on, and some gnarly shoegaze from Cold Gawd which gets it oh so right (sue me, I’ve been listening to a lot of My Bloody Valentine and Vincent got on my wavelength). All that and a lot more surprises in store.

Get listening. Stay safe. See you next week.

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– Chris