French black metal act Throane‘s debut album Derrière-nous, la lumière was one of the most criminally underrated releases of last year. Its swirling eddies of morose guitar and aching vocals entranced me from the first listen, and I was surprised and a little sad to see that it didn’t seem to make many other year end lists except for my own. Thankfully, the project is releasing a new full-length, Plus une main à mordre, and it already stands to up the ante considerably. Continue reading
Hey all. This has been a great year for music, made better because I got to share so much of my thoughts about what I was hearing with you, alongside the rest of the Nine Circles crew. It’s been a pleasure to work with some of the most talented people I’ve had the honor to know. Thanks to Dan and Corey for getting me started, to Josh Stewart for being a phenomenal editor, and to all the amazing people I do this with whose writing inspired me to better my own. Here’s to many more. And now that the sap is out of the way, on to the tunes.
Debemur Morti Productions is one of the harder working labels in extreme metal. While maintaining day jobs, the people behind the label manage to put out a remarkable amount of music from hard-to-find bands and underground acts from around the globe. Since they might be some of the only people in the music industry working as hard as us (and maybe for the same amount of no money) we figured it was high time we sat down and had a chat. So follow the jump for some words from Phil! Continue reading
I’m wondering where to even begin anymore. Every month is just so packed with tremendous releases that it’s hard to keep things straight. Well, for starters, Grave Miasma released a beyond solid EP, behemoths of clean vocals and heaviness Katatonia released a refreshingly mature and brilliant LP, Oakland purveyors of dark wave, post-punk and gothic rock Alaric dropped their best LP to date, Glorior Belli released what might be the black metal album of the year, blackened death metal band Ljosazabojstwa from Belarus dropped a debut via Hellthrasher, Howls of Ebb experimented with a genius blend of black metal and outside influences, Behexen continued their path of no bullshit black metal, I, Voidhanger (making a case for record label of the year) released Khanus and Altare Productions released as Hatespirit and Ordem Satanica and Blood Harvest’s responded by releasing Luciferion, Maleficence and Cadaveric Fumes. Continue reading
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