stormkeep

CANTO: Abrams, Necrofier, The Wraith, and More

CoreyLeave a comment


Super late canto because sometimes life be like that.

  • TRVE Brewing’s 11th anniversary event is officially set for June 24 at the Gothic Theatre in Englewood, Colorado. The lineup features Godflesh, Sumerlands, Stormkeep, and more. If I lived out that way… you know I would be there. Anyway, here’s your ticket link (they go on sale Friday).
  • Abrams have announced a run of shows out West with BleakHeart, which covers a good chunk of May. They’ll be promoting their latest release, In The Dark, which is available through Small Stone Recordings.
  • Texan black metallers Necrofier announced a new album, Burning Shadows in the Southern Night, which will be out on June 2 through Season of Mist Underground Activists. Check out the vicious new single, “Burnt by the Sacred Flame”, here.
  • Jesus Piece released “Silver Lining”, the latest from …So Unknown. Give it a listen here. That album is slated for an April 14 release through Century Media.
  • Closing out, we have Nine Circles favorite The Wraith. They’re back with their new vocalist Harley Mace, and a video for “Overthrown” can be seen below. You can also snag it through Bandcamp. That’s taken from Ghost March, which we’ll look out for later this year.

“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– cmb

The Nine Circles Playlist Vol. 217 (2.5.2022)

ChrisLeave a comment
playlist - mixtape

If you grew up listening to metal in the 80s, you know just how important the name Johnny Zazula was. If I found a cassette put out by Megaforce Records or otherwise had Johnny Z’s name associated with it, I was buying it. He was a giant in the field of thrash metal, and losing him at the age of 69 is a crying shame. So yeah, we’re kicking off the 2017th edition of the Nine Circles Playlist with a bunch of stuff associated with him. Throw one back for a titan of the genre.

The rest of the crew is all over the map, so let’s get to it. Anton brings the heavy and the new with Absent in Body, Wait, and The Last of Lucy. Ian hits with Celeste who I’ve really been digging lately, and throws in some Warning and Stormkeep to keep it moving. Josh threw me into a timewarp listening to the great first album by Tora Tora, but quickly amps the heavy up with Corpsegrinder, Extinction A.D. and Centinex (oh, and some DMX which is as heavy as anything else on this playlist). Vincent reliably brings The Mountain Goats and adds in some Elle and Cremation Lily. Angela keeps the new train moving with the new single from Messa, the latest from Rolo Tomassi and some Microwave while Buke – perhaps sensing my bringing in enough of the old school – goes decidedly modern and heavy with Dying Fetus, Ihsahn, Arcturus, and Diabolical Masquerade.

Pour one out for Johnny Z. We’ll see you next week.

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– Chris

Best of 2021: Corey’s List

CoreyLeave a comment
Best of 2021

Is that it? Am I the last one? Dang. Again. Wait, maybe one more to come… Anyway, I guess I’ll start this off on my soapbox as always, by noting that I truly cannot comprehend where we are as a society. Well, I suppose I can, which is even more frustrating. If 2020 wasn’t a brutal enough year (not in a good way), 2021 seemed to serve as an appropriate encore. Seemingly everything we experience in life has been weaponized for political gain in one way or another, a global pandemic has been widely accepted as an endemic thanks, in part, to widespread misinformation, and, just as bluntly, climate disasters resulting from human activity are on the brink of running rampant for the duration of humanity’s remaining existence… however brief that may be. And those are just my three favorite, non-personal, items to discuss in our corner of the universe. It sucks, and I’m burnt out. Optimism has completely faded at this point, and I’m ready to run screaming into the woods. But hey, cheers to 2020, right?!

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Best of 2021: Buke and David Stepanavicius of Atræ Bilis share their favorites and more!

opethbodom1 Comment
Best of 2021

David Stepanavicius of Atræ Bilis is no stranger to the podcast as he and Buke discussed Apexapien at length back in November and it was such an electric discussion that Buke reached back out to have David on again to discuss all things Best of 2021. The two catch up a bit since last time then launch into their biggest disappointments of 2021, their Honorable Mentions, and their collective Top 10. They also discuss Best of lists in general and how an artist / band views list season, how music usually finds David and how much labels play a part in it, whether Chris Barnes or memes are better, upcoming things for Atræ Bilis, and so much more. You’ll definitely want to keep a pen and paper handy as they cover a ton of great albums, forty in total. No surprise here at all, this is an excellent discussion! 

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Best of 2021: Chris’s List

Chris4 Comments
Best of 2021


The beginning is the end. Literally, in this case. I started this post with the entries for my list a few weeks ago, wrote my 1,000 word review (sorry) on my Album of the Year and concluding paragraph right before Christmas, and now here I am in the vaporous ether before the new year pondering the introduction.

And there are no words left.

I’ve wrangled with the why, trying to make sense of the music I consume and what it says, and I hit a point where trying to find an answer was…pointless. Not because it’s unimportant to know, but in the last two years the rest of the world became so much harder to deal with, life became so much harder to deal with, something in my brain went into emergency mode and just shut down the logic circuits, sending one single message over and over again:

“Stop thinking, stupid. It’s just music.”

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