Initial Descent: October 13 – 19, 2019

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1349 – photo courtesy of Dmitry Valberg

While the rest of civilization is knee deep in pumpkin spice, we’re knee deep in extreme metal and crusty horror flicks. Don your costumes and get the old plastic pumpkins ready, we’ve got tons of metal candy to hand out. Let’s do it…

For their seventh album, black metallers 1349 revisit the chaotic and thrashy nature of Hellfire and it’s like spiked arm gear buried elbow deep in some unsuspecting angel’s throat, put that in your pipe and smoke it. Oregon based deathgrinders, Rank and Vile, get the lead out with eight new tracks of piss and venom. It’s short, to the point, and kicks ass – ‘nuff said. Shrine of Insanabilis swiftly swing the black metal axe and conjure up an even better album than their debut… wait, what? It’s true, seek it out. NecronomicoN have always had a unique sort of operatic take on death metal and this tradition continues on their sixth full length which just so happens to be perfect for a dramatic exsanguination. Alright then, you know what’s next. Seek out the music and DESTROY your wallet. Continue reading

The Nine Circles Playlist Vol. 97 (9.21.2019)

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Welcome back to another exciting edition of our Saturday morning playlist.  This week, I unearth Ancient Sad Boy Jams, Josh has you covered with all the new singles that dropped this week, and Anton brings his usual prog and tech goodies into the mix.  It’s a pretty wildly mixed bag this week in terms of genre, which always tends to make things more fun.  Grab a cup of something strong and let this mixtape help wake you up.

– Vincent

The Nine Circles ov… DEUTSCHLAND 2015!

german flag nine circles ov

Deutschland is known for many things. Not all of them good. But they do make a hell of a bratwurst, some terrific beer and some mind blowing metal. That is, of course, balanced with their love for industrial music, the European Union and excessive amounts of vinyl clothing. But what the heck, right? Corey and I were discussing how great 2015 has been for Germany. In fact, we easily came up with over twenty albums from Germany alone that deserve recognition. Thus, we decided to do a two part series of Nine Circles ov… this time focusing on Germany’s best metal releases of 2015. So first up are my (Manny-O-War) Top 9. Continue reading

Best of Q3: Corey’s List

nine circles

I always appreciate these quarterly recaps that we do here at Nine Circles. With all the new music flying around week after week, month after month, it’s always good to take a minute to reflect on some of the better work we’ve been exposed to. The last few months have delivered a number of memorable albums from bigger names like Lamb of God and Amorphis, but at the same time a number of more obscure bands have forced their way into the periphery of many. My list has a bit of all that, so let’s take a look.

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Album Review: Shrine of Insanabilis – “Disciples of the Void”

Shrine.of.Insanabilis_Disciples.of.the.Void.Cover

This has proven to be one hell of a year for the black metal emerging out of central Europe, specifically Germany. It feels like it has become a monthly trend of mine to report some new, massive release from these particular regions that benefit us, and the respective genre, immensely. Well, make this no situation no different. With their debut album titled Disciples of the Void, Shrine of Insanabilis has created what is, all in all, an exceptional album that marks their place among the better black metal releases of 2015 so far.

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