I am getting so close to vacation I can smell the sand and surf. But, for now, we’ve got another long list of new metal releases to push out that kicks off with my favorite local band Olkoth who kick out the jams death metal style, then we’ve got black / death metal debauchery from Hate Manifesto, more death metal from Vomitory, another somewhat local band that’s risen in the black metal ranks: Cloak, and a shit ton more hanging out just below these four. Happy hunting and we’ll see you here throughout the week…
I’ve been knee-deep in devouring the new album by The Damned, and yes: I am going to subject you to their latest video. How many other original punk bands from the 70s are still kicking it cool 50 years later? But I’ll get the party started proper with the latest from Enforced off their new album War Remains just to keep my metals credentials active for another week. Fair?
Elsewhere there’s a lot of music to be had. We’ve got tracks from Thron, Cloak, Tanith, Wallowing, Pronostic, and a bunch of other one-word bands. On the complete opposite side of the spectrum we also have tracks from The World is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, so uh, I guess that’s a thing? I don’t know – we have music from all over the spectrum so just dig in and have a good weekend, everyone. And check out the insane short film from Portrayal of Guilt at the end of the playlist…it’s a doozy.
I tell you what, man. All this fawning over mediocre pastiches and pale imitations of older, better music is slowly killing me. I am just not hearing what others are in some of the big names getting all the buzz out there. Sure, that’s a “me” problem but since I write this weekly thing I’m entitled to a) bitch when I want to and b) kick it off how I want to, so this, the 276th edition of the Nine Circles Playlist is going to rip with a new Ihsahn track because that’s where my soul is musically right now. Then the new one from Immortal because with or without Abbath, Demonaz knows how to craft a gnarly tune, and finally the latest from Mork, who frankly ran circles around the other popular black metal release that came out this week.
Fight me.
Don’t worry. If you don’t give a crap about my whingeing, the rest of the staff has some metal to offer up, and sone of it is even good! There’s awesome new music from Gozu, Dødheimsgard, and The Ocean which you KNOW we’re most likely gonna ramble about. Plus new tracks from Harboured, Heretoir, Blaze of Sorrow, A Pregnant Light, Foretoken, and Acid King. Plus music from Powerwolf, Estoner, and since I screwed our own Dan Morris by missing his picks last week, we’re going to close with the astounding Roxy Music, because this week marks the 50th anniversary of For Your Pleasure, and that’s a fucking album for the ages.
Hello once again, fellow travellers. We’re gonna keep this short and sweet today. We’re back at you once again with another edition of our handcrafted playlist. This week, I’m back on my Peter Gabriel bullshit, Russian Circles gets some nice representation, and Josh has rounded up the best track premiers from this week and beyond. What else is in there? Only one way to find out.
I’m revisiting my initial post for what I was looking forward to from 2017 to see if those picks stood the test of time and if they were all I had hoped for. I don’t plan on going into too much detail as some of these may or may not be included in the impending EOY festivities. This year was definitely not the year we figured it all out and in fact it created more questions than any year I can remember. I do think 2017 was at least as good as 2016 on the metal front and in some cases was better, everyone will feel differently here but that’s my two cents. Metal was indeed my safe place to get away from all the bad this year held and I ran to it often. Without further ado, let’s see how these fared… Continue reading →
Nine Circles 