qoheleth

Nine* Circles ov…What “Didn’t” Make My 2019 End of Year List (But Should Have)

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Best of 2019

* Hey it’s Thursday!  And it’s more than 9!  What else is new?  I hereby fully (don’t) apologize for the late entry that clearly doesn’t at all conform to the format.  Suck it….

I tried to keep my 2019 End of Year list(s) brief…I really did.  But like last year simply too much happens in the span of 365 days to limit advocating and championing the things one comes to love.  And I’m not talking about the release of records.  I’m speaking to the way we change and grow and mutate with every experience, the way what we hold dear or take comfort in stands as a totem or ward against the hate and pain of a world gone mad, a world that grinds away at our compassion, our love, and our fortitude to stand against it while maintaining the core of who we are.  Continue reading →

Nine* Circles ov…What “Didn’t” Make My 2018 End of Year List (But Could Have)

Chris6 Comments

EOY 2018 Header 9C

* SPOILERS: it’s gonna be 20 albums…buckle your seat belts.

I told myself this year I was going to take it easy – do the Honorable Mentions, get the final list out, and put 2018 to rest.  On a global, national, and personal front the year’s been pretty much a disaster from the start, and the quicker I can put it in my rearview mirror the better.  But the more I tweaked and played with my end of year selections (thank you Trello for making that shit so easy) the more I realized that – like always – music was the thing that propped me up and made every setback if not better, at least tolerable.  And when the dust cleared from all the list building I found a huge excess of albums that didn’t make my lists but easily could have on another day.  Everything is interchangeable; we are not the people we were even a moment ago, and those experiences constantly inform our perspective on the world, metal albums included. Continue reading →

The Nine Circles Playlist Vol. 39 (4.30.2018)

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NINE-CIRCLES_LOGO-Light Background_SQUARE

Death, black, sludge, grind, doom, powerviolence, post, punk, hardcore, d-beat, noise — it’s all extreme and it’s all metal, in one form or another. I’ve never gotten the hullabaloo over who’s more kvlt or extreme or METAL. And honestly I don’t care if it hits that particular itch for me. Bottom line, don’t close yourself off narrow-mindedly —  experiment and let yourself go a bit, if not you will miss some really amazing stuff. Anyway, we’ve got another loaded playlist for you to kick off a new week with. Head over to our YouTube channel and subscribe then click that play button immediately below to get your fill of what we were listening to last week. Coffee cheers and we’ll be seeing you, here, throughout the week. Continue reading →

Visions ov Hell: Qoheleth – “SXSG”

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qoheleth - sxsg

They say that bad times make for great art, and while I don’t dispute the claim, I sure wish we didn’t need to turn the world into a garbage fire of greed and hate in order to get some great records.  We don’t, of course: plenty of great music comes from places not embroiled in the dark and cold recesses of humanity’s id, but Qoheleth have taken the fires that have stoked the outrage and protests of the last year and half and crafted a monster of an ambitious record in Black Kite Broadcasts, the follow-up to last year’s monolith of noise God Is The Warmest Place to Hide.  To that end Nine Circles is proud to once again be the place to premier a visual track from the new record as well as highlight the efforts of our friend and co-contributor Jeremy Hunt, so let’s get right into the mayhem of “SXSG” after the jump. Continue reading →

Nine Circles ov… “Special” EOY Awards (2017 Edition)

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9C 2017 EOY Header Image

2017 turned out to be a strange year for me musically.  In my first full year writing for Nine Circles I had the opportunity to explore different genres and bands I never would have discovered on my own, and taking in so much music (even when I didn’t want to, in all honesty) not only broadened my horizons and (hopefully) improved my critical thinking on music, but also helped me to understand better what it was I needed from music.

Next week I’ll be unveiling my personal Top 25 albums for 2017, along with a second post of 15 honorable mentions.  But there was so much that impacted me, and so for this final 2017 edition of Nine Circles ov… I wanted to give out a few of my own personal awards to some bands and albums that left their marks on me.  So without further ado, let’s dive in…   Continue reading →