transcendental violence

I had this enormous amount of words set to open this thing but opted for… not that. We’ve all lived through another year so there’s no need to reiterate. Instead, I’ll say that 2022 was great for me. It’ll be one of those years I’ll look back on as one that changed things for the better and I’ll have extremely fond memories of it for reasons I can’t mention here. But, I’ll also look back on it as a tremendous year for metal. And it doesn’t matter what strain you dig as pretty much all of it had a banner year. I know it seems like we’re a broken record saying that every year, but 2022 was damn strong. If you don’t feel the same, please rewind and revisit and get back to me. Otherwise, welcome to all the things that made a huge difference for me throughout the year and what was my 2022 soundtrack, what made the biggest impact…whatever, you get the idea. This list of 18…, wait…you ask “why 18?” Well, branding of course. We’re Nine Circles so you’ll get my top 9 and my 9 honorable mentions… and a few special mentions. 9C, as it was. So, let’s do it…

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Occasionally bands conjure up the perfect album art for their work, with help from solid artists of course, and an enormous lion breathing hellfire onto the earth is not only fitting for Vimur’s third full length Transcendental Violence, but also a visual representation for where we are as a society and what’s most likely to be the outcome of our stupidity. Vimur fights on the same fields of battle that some of the best second wave black metal bands did yet their spin, their feel, their power, and their conviction is second to none. They say the third time’s the charm but in this case, the third time’s the icing on the cake as Vimur has shorn up the small cracks of efforts past and are quite literally bullet, and fire, proof.

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