spiritworld – Nine Circles

Missed Connections: Looking Back on 2022

January 30, 2023January 30, 2023IanLeave a comment

Writing this list in particular is always one of my favorite points in the year. It’s the time where I get to look at everyone else’s list and go “hey, I should have included that too!”, and it gives me a chance to go back and look at all the stuff that I have missed out on listening to in favor of obligations, lack of time, lack of brainpower, or simply not being able to turn off Origins like I know I need to. It’s always good to take one last look back on everything before we properly usher in the new year and new releases with it, so let’s jump into some of the things that I am currently kicking myself for not giving more attention to.

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CANTO: In Flames, Suicide Silence, Kreator, and More

January 16, 2023January 16, 2023CoreyLeave a comment

I didn’t work today, but getting Canto out for you fine folks still counts for something, right?

To lead off the week, we have some announcements from Suicide Silence. Remember… You Must Die will be out through Century Media on March 10, and with that announcement they shared a music video for “Alter of Self”. It’s an entertaining clip, I’m not gonna lie.
Kreator and Sepultura are coming together for the “Klash of the Titans” North America tour this coming May and June. The dates kick off in Harrisburg and wrap up in NYC, and they’ll be joined by Death Angel and Spiritworld. You can scoop up tickets this coming Friday.
Swedish metallers Beneath My Feet unveiled a new single today, titled “One More Time”, which of course came with a music video. Give that a watch here. In Parts, Together is scheduled for a March 3rd release through Noble Demon.
Closing out, we have another heavy new single from In Flames, titled “Meet Your Maker”. Give the video for the new track a watch below. As a reminder, Foregone is set for a February 10th release through Nuclear Blast, and yes I did in fact lock in my preorder several months ago.

“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– cmb

Best of 2022: Chris’s Honorable Mentions

December 21, 2022December 20, 2022Chris1 Comment

I’ve been thinking about Honorable Mentions lately. We differentiate them from our main lists, but in the grand scheme of things every album we call out on the site is an honorable mention: there’s something about the music, about the power the chords and melodies hold over us that warrants notice, that deserves a voice to amplify the message to a wider, often preoccupied world. In a time when we too often use the tools of social media and the internet to confront, to argue, to parrot – even in the name of awareness – toxic behavior, I find myself moving steadily inward, barricading myself from the noise and burying my head in the sonic pulse of drums, guitar, bass, and vocals both sung and shouted, screamed and pitched in ways that insulate me from the static of the world.

But the music, dumbass! It calls for notice, deserves it. And like 2020 and 2021 this is just the start of a conversation, not the end. So once again: 15 records in alphabetical order. Any other day, any other minute from the time I write this it can change. Does that make it any less valid?

Does it matter if I got you to – even for a moment – consider the virtues of these fantastic records?

You decide. In the meantime, let’s do this.

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Nine Circles ov…Albums We Didn’t Get To in 2022

November 29, 2022November 28, 2022Chris2 Comments

It happens like it does every year: things fall through the cracks, promos don’t arrive, or we simply didn’t have the capacity to cover everything we want to cover, let alone everything that comes out in a calendar year. At this point folks are finalizing end of year lists and maybe – just maybe – some of these records will be represented on them, and so some accounting was in order. Or it could just be that we needed some content this week, so I went through my folder of 2022 music and picked nine albums to briefly opine on for this latest edition of Nine Circles ov…

You decide.

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The Nine Circles Playlist Vol. 259 (11.26.2022)

November 26, 2022November 26, 2022ChrisLeave a comment

For those of you who celebrate it, welcome back from the throes of mass turkey consumption, of stuffing annihilation, and of pie decimation. For the rest of you, simply welcome back. I got a huge Thanksgiving gift when I learned Elder released their latest album Innate Passage a day early on Bandcamp, and then it just kept coming when I finally got to hear the totality of the new Spiritworld album. Both albums are putting serious crimps in my already drafted end of year list, so let’s kick off with them for this, the 259th Nine Circles Playlist.

The rest of the gang managed to pry themselves off the couch and offer up the usual assortment of metal maladies to get your body in shape for the holiday rush. We’ve got Jade, Fvnerals, live Der Weg Einer Freiheit, new Nothingness and Shedfromthebody. We’ve got a big ol’ epic from The Otolith, tracks from Esquela Grind, Intranced, and Reeking Aura. You want a little more moody and a little less extreme? Okay: we’ve got you dialed in with some Kathryn Mohr, some Silversun Pickups, and for the countryheads out there even a little slinky funk courtesy of Paul Cauthen. And one of the best bands in the world to close it out.