fen

The Nine Circles Playlist Vol. 279 (4.15.2023)

ChrisLeave a comment

playlist - mixtape

Italian wake last night. Imagine the stereotype, then add legit anguish and cover it in the stifling scent of too many flowers and cologne. Leaving for the burial today, and thank god it was such a killer week for new metal. I’m kicking this off with the new releases that have kept the last 24 hours bearable, including Overkill, VoidCeremony, Metallica, Jesus Piece and Stillbirth – all of which came out this past Friday.

From there the 279th edition of the Nine Circles Playlist has your back with the staff picks: new music from Dødheimsgard, Thantifaxath, Fen, Aodon, Lunar Chamber, Pupil Slicer, and a whole lot more. But I gotta get out of here so the only way you’ll know is to dig in and find out for yourselves.

Get listening. Stay safe. See you next week…

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– Chris

Nine Circles ov…Mistakes Made on End of Year Lists

Chris2 Comments

Sometimes you make a snap judgement on an album. Sometimes in the heat of the moment with the hype and the accolades you convince yourself this or that record IS deserving of a place on the list. Sometimes that record takes the place of a record you find yourself listening to constantly years later.

It happens. Even when your annual end of year list(s) top out at close to 50 records after all the hemming and hawing is over with. And so for this edition of Nine Circles ov… in preparation of the 2020 end-of-year ranking I look back at my past lists and find nine albums that, frankly, I made a mistake on.
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CANTO: Fellwarden, Gaerea, Cave In, and more

CoreyLeave a comment

gaerea2020

There are more pending vinyl orders that I’m waiting to be delivered than I can keep track of. Good problems to have, as it were.

  • Fellwarden, a black metal project featuring members of Fen, have revealed the first track from their upcoming second album, Wreathed in Mourncloud, set for a June 26th release through Eisenwald. Check out “An Elder Reckoning” now, and get excited about one of the releases I’m anticipating most in 2020.
  • This acoustic clip of Cave In performing “Shake My Blood” over at Revolver is definitely worth watching. This footage was taken at LA’s Laurel Canyon, and brings an entirely new element to this track. Cool stuff.
  • In case you weren’t aware, Psychostick has been performing live shows every Thursday for the past couple of months as a way to raise some bucks to help fight the impact of COVID-19. And after tomorrow’s concert, they expect to surpass the $10,000.00 mark, which is awesome.
  • It seems like we were only just talking about Unsettling Whispers here at Nine Circles, but Gaerea have already announced their next album, Limbo, will be out on July 24th through Season of Mist. Check out the first single, “Null”, right now.

“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– cmb

The Third Circle of Bandcamp: Year End 2019 Edition

Charles RandallLeave a comment

third circle of Bandcamp header

Welcome back, friendo. This month we’re going to do it a little different, because December was slow AF, and we’re all in the spirit of year-end lists. So this time, I’m going to give you a selection of my absolute favorite tracks of the year. Things you might have missed, things *I* might have missed. Just good music all around. 2019 was a year for the books, fingers crossed 2020 delivers. We’ll see what January gives us.

Oh yeah. This one’s a double. What can I say? It was a great year. Oh, and it ain’t all metal. Sorry metal fam, sometimes you just gotta take your medicine. Clocking in at just over two hours, I hope this helps you adjust to the fact that we now live in the future.

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Best of 2019: Chris’s Honorable Mentions List

Chris2 Comments

Best of 2019

No meandering preamble.  Too much of 2019 was utter shit, and music was the salve to my battered and bruised soul.  Last week I touted 19 albums that helped me cope with the personal and global tragedies that the year brought, and this week brings another 15 records that, while not formally ranked all can on a given day act as my #26, or even my #1.  Don’t try to find reason or logic in a list.  Not only is it all subjective, but it’s all subject to change on a dime, on a given moment when the axis spins and tries to buck you off into orbit, and all you can cling to is the fragment of a melody, a riff or a lyric that tethers you to the world, keeps you grounded and ready for another day.

Enough.  Let’s do this.   Continue reading →