Mondays aren't fun, we know this, but I did acquire a new camera over the weekend and that IS fun at least. Heavy psych/sludge band out of Mumbai, Midhaven, dropped the heavy new single "The Veiler". That's a follow up to 2021's Of The Lotus & The Thunderbolt and arrives ahead of some December dates in Japan. Next up, Texas metal outfit…

The 413th edition of the Nine Circles Playlist is over the moon and cheer and good wishes to our own Ian and Angela, who are tying the knot today. Despite all the corpsepaint, bullet belts and battle vests love is a many splendored thing, indeed, something the vicious pummeling of Waldgeflüster and rip-roaring cover tunes from Back Sabbitch can't diminish.

Ah yes, I see we have reached that time of the year where we live in perpetual darkness for a handful of months. Rad! Let's start with dark death metallers The Ominous Circle who have revealed the second track from their sophomore album, Cloven Tongues of Fire. Check out "Writhing, Upturning, Succumbing" here and get ready for that release on November 28th through Osmose Productions.

What a long week today has been. Let's start with some sludge. Austrian doom crew Tarlung have signed on with Argonauta Records for the release of their upcoming new album, Axis Mundi. That's set to arrive on January 30th and you can check out "Static Noise" now. Another signing announcement. Alabama's Wielded Steel have joined Massachusetts-based hardcore label 1126 Records.

Greetings, friends! We've got something wonderfully nasty for you today. Pacific Northwest death metal/deathgrind purveyors Ripping Remains released the Necrodestiny EP back on October 3rd through Satanik Royalty Records, and now we're here to talk about it. Emerging from what was Dripping Decay, vocalist Eric Stucke and drummer Jason “The Machine” Borton teamed up with bassist Michael “Frei” Freiburger to release five ferocious cuts that serve as only the beginning for this project.

I have officially registered for a race next year. Again! Again! We'll start with Black Coast, who announced their signing to the Papercut Recordings roster and released the new single "Overflow" to mark the occasion. That marks a new chapter, and the first taste of a new album we could expect early in 2026. Greek metal crew Nightfall…

Expectation is such a heavy thing when it comes to your favorite bands. You want to support them, to give them room to stretch and create and follow their personal muse (muses? It's early in the morning) wherever it will take them. But you know deep down there's a small kernel of...let's call it yearning...for them to do exactly what YOU want.

That was one hell of a weekend. Recovery time will be extensive. What'd I miss? According to the inbox... a whole lot. Let's start with some blackened thrash out of the Atlanta region. Malefic offered up the first glimpse of their debut album, a track titled "It Haunts". Impermanence is set for a February 13th drop through Terminus Hate City.

The 412th edition of the Nine Circles Playlist can't believe we're in November, which means I need to get going on building end of year lists already. But first we have to acknowledge one of the picks submitted by the staff this week, because Vince's selection of "A Praise Chorus" by Jimmy Eats World reminded me this is one of the best rock songs of the 21st century, and it's been far too long since I listened to it, and sang it at the top of my lungs.

Happy Halloween boys, ghouls, and all creatures of the night! For this All Hallows Eve edition, our offerings are the spooky spectre of a death/black metal debut in Pedestal for Leviathan's Enter: Vampyric Manifestation alongside yet another seasonal lager in the form of a collaboration between Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and Störtebeker Brauspezialitäten with Oktoberfest 2025. Drink from the cauldron of heresy.

One more (long) day ahead, and then it's time for another adventure. We'll start with French black metal entity Hyver. The title track from Shaâtaunoâr emerged today, and you can hear it here. Their third album is out on November 25th through Antiq. A quick tour to announce today. Cold Cave announced a West Coast run that kicks off on February 13th in Los Angeles.

We've got a quick one for ya today, gang. Today Is The Day, the long-running psychedelic metal project from Steve Austin, just dropped Never Give In at the start of October. A five-year gap since No Good To Anyone has officially closed with this first installment of a two-part concept album, with the sister album arriving next year. Better yet, Today Is The Day can be caught live during the upcoming…

Too many albums, too few reviewers…that’s the problem with all the metal blogs, not just this one. What do you do? How do you get a sense of what’s out there if you’re only listening to a fraction of what’s getting released? How do you open yourself up to new music? I’ll tell you how: you jump into all the unpicked promos each month and devote a sentence or two giving a sense of what you gleaned from it.

It's finally actually cold out, but the fire sure has been nice to light more regularly. Three more days until it's time to jump on another plane. Finnish avantgarde black and doom metal entity Death Obvious are releasing their self-titled debut album on December 5th through Transcending Obscurity. You can hear "Santuario" and "As Absence Expands Over Everything" through Bandcamp…

The 411th edition of the Nine Circles Playlist was wondering if the kids still say "What's the 4-1-1"? It would certainly be better than all this " 6-7" thing that took me forever to understand. At least we have things like Testament covering classic Metallica to kick off the weekend. Oh, you wanted some new music? Fret not: we also got new tracks from two bands who have been away for far too long: …

Today was a day I had been looking forward to for some time, and it didn't disappoint. Why? ...Because Fire in the Mountains announced the first wave of bands for 2026. So far next year's festival will include Enslaved, Yob, Borknagar, Sigh and more. Yes, it's already a stacked lineup. Yes, there are many more bands still to be announced.

A four track, nearly fifty minute opus is quite a grand statement to make following a five year hiatus, but that is exactly what Denmark’s Sunken have done with their newest release Lykke. Sunken play the kind of atmospheric black metal that I enjoy a lot, with long, sweeping compositions, saccharine melodies and a whole lot of emotional depth, without sacrificing any of the intensity inherent in the “black metal” part of “atmospheric black metal”.

At least tomorrow is Friday. How many times have I said that before? I mention Ingested pretty much whenever they do anything, and that's with good reason. Today we have the video for the new single "Nefarious Tongues" which arrives ahead of their North America tour kicking off on November 6th. Spanish doom-death metal crew Sun of the Dying revealed…