traditional metal – Nine Circles

Album Review: Satan – “Earth Infernal”

April 1, 2022April 1, 2022ChrisLeave a comment

Some bands evolve and adapt, morphing into forms that incorporate diverse and growing influences. And some band keep on keepin’ on. I have no idea how bands a band like Satan is able to continually harness that NWOBHM flame they first stoked on 1983’s Court in the Act and not only keep it alight, but keep it fresh and new and completely unique from other bands out there doing the same. All of which is to say that Earth Infernal, the band’s sixth album and fourth since their 2011 re-emergence is another standard bearer for the cause, 10 tracks of righteous rock signal another classic entry in the annals of traditional metal.

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Album Review: Nite — “Voices of the Kronian Moon”

March 24, 2022March 23, 2022Chris5 Comments

There are bands that ape the NWOBHM era, and there are those who breathe it. There are those who take the requisite notes about song structure, harmonized leads and banging choruses and simply emulate, and there are those who absorb the HEAVY METAL™ into every atom in their being, and via some heavy metal fission burst it back out into the ether where you can sense the building blocks but the thing before you? This is new. This, ladies and gentlemen, is bitchin‘. That’s the kind of fist pumping, head banging rock and roll Nite once again bring forth on their sophomore release Voices of the Kronian Moon. Its cover art may be brooding fantasy, but its heart is clad in denim and studded with spikes, ready to envelop you under its dark spell.

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Nine Circles ov…Clearing Out This Week’s Promo Pile

March 15, 2022March 14, 2022Chris3 Comments

Black Fucking Cancer - Procreate Inverse

The last time I did something like this was back in 2018, but maybe I need to do it more. With so much music coming out it’s easy to just sit back and cherry pick the albums you’re already anticipating and write about it. And as many of our staff focus on things other than review writing (thank the heavens for the consistent and consistently excellent output of Ian) I suspect we’re missing out on a lot of great music that just isn’t getting the attention here at Nine Circles it should. So, foolish as it may seem I called out to Fearless Editor Josh™ with my request: give me nine promos for albums coming out this week, and I’ll listen and give some semblance of commentary for them. Ambitious? Perhaps. Stupid? Almost certainly. But if it gets some visibility for some bands and gets me attuned to some new music instead of constantly digging into the bins for rock and prog circa ’69-’74 all the better. So for this edition of Nine Circles ov... let’s take a look at some of the music coming out this week.

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Receiving the Evcharist: Nekromant and Schilling Beer Co.

December 3, 2021December 3, 2021CoreyLeave a comment

I’m not going to lie to you, it has been an absolute beast of a start to the holiday season. Not in a good way, nor a bad way, but in a way of some form or another. Anyway, aren’t you all lucky, because I still carved out time to blast back a few beers to some heavy metal and talk about it for some reason. This time around I give you Temple Of Haal from Nekromant and the Landbier Dunkel from Schilling Beer Co. They have nothing to do with each other in any way, shape, or form (that I know of), but I sure needed both today. Let’s share feelings!

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Album Review: Darkthrone — “Eternal Hails…..”

June 30, 2021June 30, 2021Chris2 Comments

The world is changing. Faster than anyone would believe, and faster yet in the last year. It’s terrifying and impossible to unsee: in the vicious upheaval of the past year where everyone moved a thousand miles an hour in a thousand different directions it felt like there were fewer and fewer things to cling to. Where were the anchor points, the tethers to a known quantity…something to remind us of the underlying laws of the universe?

Far off in the distance something looms at the horizon. A shape of immeasurable size, and a sound that reverberates in frequencies older than the dinosaurs start to roll in like a massive tide that has been building and building forever…eternally, one could say.

They are back. We stare into the inky unknown black of the night and know that whatever happens, Darkthrone have returned to light the Earth with the torch of heavy metal, to scorch the ground with the prehistoric concussion of Eternal Hails….., the latest piece of evidence that the Old Ones still walk among us, and they have zero interest in anything but the Almighty Riff.

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