memento mori

Initial Descent: January 26 – February 1, 2020

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Bütcher
Bütcher

The recent turn of events for the incredible Tanagra is unfortunate at best and absolute bullshit in its entirety. At its core, it shows a company – that no one’s ever heard of – that will stop at nothing to cripple a band that has nothing to do with said company nor had any intentions of crossing paths in any way. If you do nothing else today, go here and buy all you can to show the band support and hopefully give them a fighting chance to rebuild or whatever their next step will be. In other news, we’ve got tons of new metals this week beginning with the old school blackened speedsters Bütcher, an industrialized and cinematic take on The Seventh Seal from Brooklyn’s Fliege, soul touching darkness from Deathwhite, and vermin infested death from Proscrito. Beyond that, tons more entries await. Do it. Continue reading →

Initial Descent: October 6 – 12, 2019

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Mortiferum
Mortiferum – photo courtesy of Carter Murdoch

Devils, Witches, Ghouls, Freaks, and Sinners it’s our time. October is the month where the freak flags fly, inhibitions are at their most transparent, and the most wicked, vile imaginations are out in full force. Take a step back and breathe in that crisp fall air whilst knowing that Devil’s Night is drawing nigh. Oh yea, all that and a bag of chips. New metal. We got it. You need it. GO…

Pacific Northwest death/doom dealers Mortiferum axe their way onto the scene with a dank ass debut that reaches into the chest cavity, grabs the beating heart, and eats it slowly, very slowly. Then, neatly cleans up and moves on to the next victim. Next, on yet another debut, Australia’s Carcinoid vomits forth a hellishly tortured landscape of putrid death metal nasty enough to make its own blood drenched horror movie. Moving on, extreme metal scene veterans Sammath return with their sixth full length of blackened death/war metal and it’s a smorgasbord of insanity just waiting for a victim. Last up top is Blut Aus Nord, whom I’m sure you’ve heard that their latest full length of otherworldly progressive black metal was leaked by some two-bit-asshole so they decided to unleash the digital and yes, you already know it rules. But now, the physical edition is upon us and woe be unto the souls that miss out. Just sayin’. Top four down, much more to come. FEAST… Continue reading →

Second Circle: Pink Muscles and Ruin

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Second Circle

In Dante’s Inferno, the second circle begins the proper punishment of Hell, a place where “no thing gleams.” It is reserved for those overcome with Lust, where carnal appetites hold sway over reason. In Nine Circles, it’s where we do shorter reviews of new (ish) albums that share a common theme.

If there’s a common theme to this edition of Second Circle beyond “Here are two albums that fell through the cracks” I’ll leave it you to figure it out.  On the one hand we have Pink Muscles, a noise/punk collective with a serious bent toward out there horror and angular riffing; on the other we have Ruin, a grimy old school death outfit whose names may be hidden but wear their influences on their sleeves.  So get your hip waders and your aluminum foil hats, folks.  Shit’s about to get weird… Continue reading →

Initial Descent: April 23 – 29, 2017

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Soulrot
Soulrot

If you’ve been following along, I talk about time a lot and mostly how fast it escapes us. On that theme, as of this month Nine Circles turns three years old. And it’s been an amazing ride thus far. To all writers and contributors, past and present, thank you sincerely. To our readers, thank you from the bottom of our blackened hearts for spending your time with us and being the best audience ever. And to the PR firms, labels, bands and venues we appreciate you. Now, we have metal to get to and truth be told that’s why you came so without further ado: Nameless Hideous Manifestations is a scorcher of a death metal debut from Chile’s Soulrot but also one that will have you rockin your headbanging skills like it’s 1990 again. Life of Agony have finally returned after 12 years with A Place Where There’s No More Pain and truthfully they haven’t missed a step since then and this album is a firm declaration of where they are now — a good place I might add. Buildings return with their third full length You Are Not One of Us (A+ for that title) and it’s a massively dynamic noise/punk/rock album that finds the band at their best yet. And rounding out the opening slots is Duel with Witchbanger, this band just gets better and better at their brand of doom by way of classic heavy rock — proto metal if you will, highly recommended. As usual we have much, much more to get to so jump in and stay awhile. Once more, thank you for spending time with us and we hope to be sending this message out again next year. Continue reading →

Album Review: Soulrot – “Nameless Hideous Manifestations”

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Soulrot - Nameless Hideous Manifestations

We have, in our pages, covered some really good death metal bands from South America. It’s a region that’s ripe with the kind of bludgeoning obliteration that the genre is known for. We can now count Chile’s Soulrot as a contender for these same accolades on their debut full length Nameless Hideous Manifestations. There’s a lot of familiarity in this bands sound, particularly of the older persuasion, and while it’s true the glory days of death metal and Swedeath have been well-tread, Soulrot use it as the foundation for a timeless sound. Continue reading →