sumac

The Nine Circles Playlist Vol. 271 (2.18.2023)

ChrisLeave a comment

playlist - mixtape

Change of scenery this morning. I’m up in the mountains, dogs and kids running all over and a most excellent pair of headphones blasting the new Ulthar to block their cries. Oh, and of course some piping hot coffee to wash the previous night’s alcoholic excursions away. If you haven’t heard their double offering of albums the 271st edition of the Nine Circles Playlist will get you right, my friends. Most right (oh, and synergy: while you listen check out our review by the righteous and noble Ian here).

What else do we have on deck this week? How about brand new tracks from The Ocean and Frozen Soul? Or a complete ripper from Cattle Decapitation? Yeah…it’s a killer week and we also have tracks from the likes of Emperor, the great Caladan Brood (get new music out please!), Gorod, Rzen, Rotten Sound, Little Pig, Emma Ruth Rundle, Majesties, not to mention some killer prog from Circle, Teksti-TV 666 and King Crimson, as well as a whole lot more.

Get listening. Stay safe. See you next week…

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– Chris

Best of 2020: Jon’s List

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Best of 2020

Since every minute of every day in this year of our Lord 2020 seems hyperattenuated to *gestures vaguely at all of this*,  you don’t need me to remind you of anything. If you are reading this, you survived, and I hope that continues. While I count mine (and my family’s) survival as the accomplishment of the year, other things I didn’t hate were the Domestikwom EP I put out in June titled Wallowing in Misery, along with launching a full fledged website for fellow Nine Circler Chris and I’s movie podcast Cinema Dual.

I was also able to pull focus long enough to check out some albums this year, and unlike the year that spawned them, I was pretty impressed. Hopefully you find something you like or even something new. Best of luck next year.   Continue reading →

CANTO: Sumac, Sepultura, Bask, and More

CoreyLeave a comment

The snow has officially fallen. Not upset.

“Ein Bier… bitte.”
– cmb

Nine Circles ov…Metal I Missed During Blood Red

ChrisLeave a comment

Each year I take a break from writing about metal on this site to regale the 10-12 of you who read Blood Red with reviews on horror films from every corner of the globe.  Different sub-genres, different themes…vastly different modes of execution.

Kinda like metal, no?

Anyway, I’ve managed to vaguely keep up with some of what’s been going on in the extreme metal scene a bit, with different sounds catching my ears when I wasn’t knee-deep in Evil Dead homages and terrible, terrible remakes of mediocre horror films.  So for this edition of Nine Circles ov… I wanted to say a few (very few – I’m tapped at the moment after writing over 16,000 words on horror movies) words on some metal that wasn’t coveted here on the site, but managed to stick in my ears long enough to register as something I dug.

Without further ado, let’s dive in.  Continue reading →

Album Review: Sumac – “Love in Shadow”

Jon1 Comment

Sumac - Love In Shadow

The music of Sumac seems to always exist in states of perpetual construction and deconstruction. On a macro level, the trio of Aaron Turner, Nick Yacyshyn and Brian Cook frequently conjure up some truly giant apocalypses. And yet on a micro level, there’s all kinds of jagged and uneven sonic qualities brought to the surface that create a texture of crumbling brittleness. Picture a skyscraper heavily damaged, still standing but with huge swaths of rebar exposed. In this metaphor Love in Shadow, Sumac’s most recent 2018 album, tries to patch up the crumbling sections without losing its distinctiveness.   Continue reading →