Friday night. I have the usual going on: new music in the cans and some nice whiskey (currently the Redbreast 12, a recent turn-on after being largely ignorant of Irish whiskeys)within easy reach. I need it because next week I start the three-week odyssey that is my annual End of Year round up but…great stuff just won’t stop coming out (seriously: wait until you all hear the new Ustalost). And 2022 is already off to an INSANE start. I’m listening to our early pick for January’s AOTM and…well, you’ll just have to wait to and see what it is. It’s damn good though – I can tell you that much.

But seeing as there’s a few weeks left in 2021, let’s kick off the 209th edition of the Nine Circles Playlist with some killer tracks. The stoner gods have been shining their bloodshot eyes down on me, so my contribution this month kicks off with some classic High on Fire and a killer live track from Crown Lands, a band that has me scrambling to find opportunities to tell everyone how good the peculiar mix of Rush and stoner prog they’re putting out in the universe is. Josh picks up the baton for both the old and the new, mixing up some vicious death metal out of the Transcending Obscurity bullpen with Paganizer and Hellfrost and Fire but also some razor sharp Christmas hair metal courtesy of Dokken. Anton shows just how strong the early part of 2022 is shaping up to be with new tracks from Hath and Celeste, while Vincent strikes my heart with the wonderful toe and keeps it crazy heavy with the latest from Succumb. Hera raises her head from the abyss to provide some evil delights in the form of Eisbrecher, Khôra, and…and…(checks to be sure) yup, something called Infected Mushroom.

All that and Buke bringing us home with some classics from Rainbow, Savatage, Nevermore, and the newest single from Voivod. So what are you waiting for?

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– Chris