The Nine Circles Playlist Vol. 246 (8.27.2022)

This week Mastodon released a 90-minute documentary detailing the creation of our combined favorite album of 2021 (not to mention my personal favorite) so I’m leaving it to others to populate the playlist this week, lest you get nothing but the fearsome foursome in here.

(I might add a track or two, anyway. Prerogative of the writer, and all that)

Lots of good stuff on tap this week, including a new track from masters of metalcore Botch, new music from Tribal Gaze, The Halo Effect, Russian Circles, Devil’s Witches and Guapa (one to definitely watch out for). There’s also plenty of classics if that’s more your taste, including killer cuts from Twisted Sister, Running Wild, and Praying Mantis, a band I haven’t heard in FOREVER so thanks, Buke! All that and more…plus some Mastodon, of course.

Get listening. Stay safe. See you next week.

Chris

Khemmis, Opeth, and Mastodon live at The Fillmore Philadelphia, 4.26.2022

Bands: Khemmis, Opeth, and Mastodon

Photographer: Matt (Buke) Buchan

Location: The Fillmore Philadelphia

Date: April 26, 2022

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CANTO: Mastodon, Opeth, Inglorious, and More

Happy Amorphis week!

  • I think leading off with Mastodon and Opeth is the proper choice. Those two have another North American tour coming up together, in April and May, and I cannot wait. They’re skipping my coast this time around, but I have a feeling I’m still going to make this happen.
  • In case it wasn’t obvious, I’m excited about the new Amorphis record. So on that note, I’m going to slide in the latest studio documentary episode, where they cover the vocals and lyrics. Watch it here, and make sure you have Halo ready to go on Friday.
  • Out of the Voyager camp, we have a fresh new drum play-through for the Eurovision song “Dreamer”. In case you were wondering, that song is taken from 2019’s release, Colours in the Sun.
  • Inglorious have announced their ever first live release, MMXXI Live At The Phoenix. That’s set for an April 8th release through Frontiers Music. Check out the clip for “I Don’t Need Your Loving” immediately below, and purchase the album here.

“Ein Bier… bitte.”
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Best of 2021: Corey’s List

Best of 2021

Is that it? Am I the last one? Dang. Again. Wait, maybe one more to come… Anyway, I guess I’ll start this off on my soapbox as always, by noting that I truly cannot comprehend where we are as a society. Well, I suppose I can, which is even more frustrating. If 2020 wasn’t a brutal enough year (not in a good way), 2021 seemed to serve as an appropriate encore. Seemingly everything we experience in life has been weaponized for political gain in one way or another, a global pandemic has been widely accepted as an endemic thanks, in part, to widespread misinformation, and, just as bluntly, climate disasters resulting from human activity are on the brink of running rampant for the duration of humanity’s remaining existence… however brief that may be. And those are just my three favorite, non-personal, items to discuss in our corner of the universe. It sucks, and I’m burnt out. Optimism has completely faded at this point, and I’m ready to run screaming into the woods. But hey, cheers to 2020, right?!

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Best of 2021: Chris’s List

Best of 2021


The beginning is the end. Literally, in this case. I started this post with the entries for my list a few weeks ago, wrote my 1,000 word review (sorry) on my Album of the Year and concluding paragraph right before Christmas, and now here I am in the vaporous ether before the new year pondering the introduction.

And there are no words left.

I’ve wrangled with the why, trying to make sense of the music I consume and what it says, and I hit a point where trying to find an answer was…pointless. Not because it’s unimportant to know, but in the last two years the rest of the world became so much harder to deal with, life became so much harder to deal with, something in my brain went into emergency mode and just shut down the logic circuits, sending one single message over and over again:

“Stop thinking, stupid. It’s just music.”

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