News. Now that’s something that should be easy to get but alas. Somewhere along the line we let agendas worm their way into our most basic form of communication and that is beyond idiotic, to say the least. As a breath of fresh air we bring you the metal news here on Initial Descent and specifically this week’s batch of the new new, completely agenda free other than what I’ve latched onto for the opening slots.

The 460th edition of the Nine Circles Playlist had one of those moments where you literally feel the earth slide out from underneath you, each server in your body signaling a threshold has been crossed, one there is no returning from. Everything has changed. Nothing is the same. My moment came on 11:45pm Tuesday night, and if I were allowed music maybe I would have listened to the new…

For this one, folks, we’re going off the beaten path just a little bit, but I think this is the right time to do so. Same old column, maybe a little bit of a different cup of heresy to drink from, though. This week’s offerings: Swans’ Newly Sentient Being and Heady Cup Coffee Roasters’ Lemon Heady.

Welcome to Infernal Visions, a column where I review an album and pull a tarot card, oracle, or rune called forth by said album, sharing my interpretation of the card and how I feel it relates to the music. Let us bring together distortion and divinity. This week's calling is atmospheric black metal album A Hopeless Dawn by Nordicwinter…

I think I've learned my lesson... when 20 Buck Spin releases a sci-fi thrash album --- especially from a power trio --- it's best practice to sit your ass down and listen. From the Francophone province best known for maple syrup and technical metal comes the sophomore album from Canadian death thrashers Dissimulator. Slightly easing off the tech…

We're going all the way back to early March with this latest Profile, but I assure you this is one that is absolutely worth revisiting at this point in the year. Or discovering for the first time if it slipped by you. Italian stoner rock crew Desert Collider released Generation Ship: Endless Drift Through Infinity through Small Stone Recordings way back when, and it is right up there with my favorite desert/stoner/psych albums of the entire year.

Last one for almost two weeks! We open with Disfear. The Last Nail arrives on November 20th through Relapse, a tribute to Henrik, Tomas, and Marcus - including the final performances of the latter two. Heavy, heavy stuff. Give the first single, "Early Graves", a listen. Brazilian thrash outfit Critical Fear officially launched preorders for their new album…

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.

You're only getting two of these from me this week, at best, so let's make them count just like never! Slipknot brought the biggest news of the day (probably) with their (sic)est Stadium Tour. There is so much going on here. Tour launch events tonight, presales tomorrow, and supporting performances from the likes of Bring Me The Horizon, Lamb of God, Lorna Shore...

Outstanding week of training last week. How about you? No, no I’m not calling you out but if the shoe fits is all I’m sayin’. Anyway, we’re back already with another list of the new metalijams that Amon Amarth so efficiently kick off. Dudes just do not miss and I love them for it. Plus, I’ve been all into the Norse stuff lately so this fits like Gleipnir around Fenrir.

The 459th edition of the Nine Circles Playlist is weathering the storm along with everyone else, whether it's the hurricane on the West coasr, or the Nor'easter on the Eastern seaboard. Stay safe, listen to music is my advice. Music like the new Godflesh or The Ocean (they have an entirely new lineup?); I'm currently waist deep in the new 13-hour…

If ever there was a time for some ear-piercing metal and a strong beverage to wash it all down with, now is that time. Prepare your bodies and drink from the cup of heresy. This week’s offerings: Brat’s Manslayer and Corporate Ladder Brewing Company’s Chocolate Frog.

Ever since Holocene, I have been screaming about how the next best frontier for The Ocean to explore both thematically and conceptually was space. I know that both Anthropocentric and Heliocentric exist, but they are more about the philosophical, scientific definitions of where we perceive ourselves to be within the solar system. Now, with the band releasing their twelfth album, …

Outside of virtuosic prog or the glassy-eyed world of stoner/doom, perhaps, metal has never really been the friendliest genre to improvisation. But as the exemplary minds behind Death. Void. Terror. demonstrate in their third monolithic manifest, it is very possible to craft metal that is both partially improvised and intriguing to listen to. To the Great Monolith III: Rifts is yet another offering from the Swiss collective Jünger Tumilon, best known for Ungfell, Arkhaaik, and many other great projects.

We're rolling back the calendar for a quick one today. Chicago-based instrumental power/post-metal trio Coyote Man released their new full-length album, Prosthetic Memories, back on August 14th and it's one you'll be glad to spend some time with. While Coyote Man officially formed in 2015, members Augie Portugal, Ian Wheeler, and Rene Rodriguez had been working together far longer than that, and it's apparent on this effort.

Welcome to Infernal Visions, a column where I review an album and pull a tarot card, oracle, or rune called forth by said album, sharing my interpretation of the card and how I feel it relates to the music. Let us bring together distortion and divinity. This week's calling is shoegaze album In Between Strides by Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree…

Last Canto of the week? Maybe! I have places to be starting tomorrow. Let's start Tuesday's list with something new. Unchained Vengeance are releasing their debut album, Unbound and Unforgiving, on October 30th through Nameless Grave Records. Give the lyric video for "The Whisper of Sorrowsbane" a peak here. This is both hilarious and awesome. I'm in. Next up, something not quite so new.

The hardest working band in showbiz is back, baby.  Who even knows how many Krallice albums there are out there (I think I do, Scour Order is their nineteenth release by my count), but there seems to be new ones dropping with a frequency that is alarming if you’re any other band in the progressive black metal circle. Not only is Krallice a band known for their frequency of releases, they are also one of the most consistent in terms of quality, no matter how many different permutations and arrangements of themselves they go through.

When I heard there was going to be another Hanging Garden release, I was confused. I knew that a Hanging Garden had released an album in the earlier part of 2026, so imagine my initial confusion when I heard of this one. Well, the joke was on me, because this is certainly not the death-doom Finns. Let's discuss this band and their newest album…

We're in the home stretch now. Oh what? I don't even know anymore. Poland death metal crew Wingless presented "Crossing the Abyss" as the first single (and video) from their upcoming new album. Vision Beyond Form will be a November release through Selfmadegod Records. Chained Saint, a teen metal collective out of Florida, are releasing a new EP on October 9th through Patriark Records titled…

Making further and further strides with a 175lb sandbag. Now, if I can just find that breathing trick right around the halfway mark of each carry… lol. Speaking of serious weight, this week’s batch of new releases carries some a ton kicking off with psychedelic death metal behemoths Wharflurch; at this point anything Gurgling Gore touches is fire so there you go, then we’ve got…

The 458th edition of the Nine Circles Playlist welcomes the onset of the autumnal equinox with Anthrax...why, how do you welcome the new season? That, Emma Ruth Rundle and Early Moods have been tripping my brain in all the right ways, and I still have to really dig into that Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats album...I love lazy weekends.

It's Friday, my friends. What new drops have been listening to? The Eternal, perhaps? The progressive dark metal outfit just dropped Obscured Horizons via Reigning Phoenix Music and they're celebrating their new album with a video for "Harmony Breaks". Or how about modern metalcore crew Currents? Their new EP, Worlds Away, is out now through SharpTone Records, and…

It's been a long week, and there will be more long weeks ahead. But at least those long weeks will involve travel! We open with the final segment of the 21-minute closing piece from Solaris, titled "Milk of My Dreams". That segment features Thorsten Quaeschning of Tangerine Dream, and I gotta be real, the more I hear from this new album from…

Every so often a Profile rolls through for a release that I just cannot stop listening to. Such is the case with Chicago's Shrineburner. The sludgey doom outfit just released Hymns of Despair, their debut full-length, last week and it has been on repeat basically ever since. Simply put, this thing is immense. Crushingly massive. That's where it all starts.

I guess it’s not a huge surprise to me that a lot of people, some of whom are on staff, don’t really get amped up about thrash metal the way I do. Sure, it was a novelty when the genre blossomed in the 80’s, but since its heyday, it’s all been kinda the same variations on a theme for nearly half a century.

On Anthropic Rites of Sublimation, Germany's Ch'ahom create a world where death is not just a driving force of existence, it is the world itself. Envisioned as a gigantic ts'ono'ot, a Yucatec Mayan word for a hole in the earth that leads to an underground water-filled cave, death becomes a black hole beckoning all life towards it in order to be eventually swallowed completely.

Another long day in the city. The good news? Only one more and then I can return the mountains. Oh heck yeah, new Fucked Up is on the way. Year Of The Rooster, a 2xLP, will be a November 13th release through Tankcrimes and two excerpts are streaming now: "Good Goat Saw A Leaf" and "I Hear The Hooves"

It is almost new Enslaved season once again! Back in early 2023 I presented a 9C ov... Enslaved Deep Cuts in anticipation of Heimdal, their first new album since joining Nine Circles myself. Three and a half years later their seventeenth full-length Mið is less than two months away, so it's time to partake in another hype-building deep dive. This time around I'm indulging in what…

I ran 21 miles yesterday and let me tell you... it sucked. Alas, only another 10 miles to go. Alright now what does the inbox have for me on this early evening in Boston? I need a kick in the ass right now so we'll start with a dose of thrash. Virginia's Vigil have set October 30th as the release date for their debut album…

News to no one, pumpkin spice is everywhere yet it’s still hotter than Satan’s bunghole. To be fair though, we run around in shorts at Christmas time (most years) so who am I to lament cooler weather not being here yet. Anyway, new releases are at least bringing the heat yet again with a guttural death metal outing from Ch’ahom,

The 457th edition of the Nine Circles Playlist really felt the whole "The Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh Away" with regards to releases this week. Green Lung hit nicely, and the latest escapade from Steven Wilson promises a much more rocking return with his new album. Oh, and I might be obsessed with that At The Gates...can't stop returning to it after the release of every single.

Hey remember how I ambitiously said there would be a couple of these last week... and then a week and a half went by? Yeah. My bad. But I have good news! If you missed the release of Hymns for the Denial of God in late August, the latest from self-proclaimed post-skramz crew Dreamwell, you get another chance right now.

The list is just too damn long these days. Oh well. There was some good/important stuff that emerged today so let's get to it... We start with The Keening, which features Rebecca Vernon Of SubRosa. The sophomore album out of that project, Devotion, will be here on October 16th through Relapse Records. Get an early taste with the video for "A Little Bit Of Blood"

Jacht der Mysteriën will mark the fourth time I have written about Fluisteraars for this site, and for good reason; they are the band that introduced me to the wider world of the Dutch black metal scene, a constant source of surprising and eclectic artists, and yet even among their peers the duo have managed to stay at the forefront of creating boundary-pushing black metal.

Back in January, I wrote a review for The Eternal’s then-newest EP, Celestial, which leaned towards them experimenting with a new sound – or, at the very least, expanding their sonic palette. I know it isn’t wise to have expectations based on an EP, but I like having an idea of what to expect. Well, after almost eight months since…

I'm like... 20% of the way through my photo backlog. Maybe. That's intimidating! So, time for a quick break to catch up on the day's news. Should we open with the latest from Wayfarer? Um, yes. With preorders for Riders of the Setting Sun officially live, we also got "Hollow Hearts on the Trail to Eden". And I gotta say, the more I listen to these first couple of samples, the more I like them.

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.

Met a member of thrashers Indestructible Noise Command since we last talked new releases. Cool dude, cool stories, and a cool band that I’d never dabbled with. I’ve now dabbled and excellent stuff all around. Definitely a case of ‘the pleasure is all mine’. You never know who you’ll run into… Alright then, new stuff this week kicks off with ultra progressive death metal from…

The 456th edition of the Nine Circles Playlist is ensconced in the woods with family, watching Midnight Run for the nth time and positively buzzing at the news of Converge prepping a massive deluxe edition of Jane Doe ready for later in the year. Pair that with the new Chat Pile and Sigh and I couldn't be any more ready for the extended weekend.

When it comes to the "dissonant", avant-coded side of black metal, there are two problems a new act can run into. Venture too far outside of the established mold of the genre and you become an incomprehensible outsider to both the most dedicated to the weird; play things too comfortably, and you end up as yet another post-Krallice/Deathspell Omega act trying to "out-dissonance" your peers.

Sleep is a band that needs no introduction. If you don’t know who they are by now, then there is nothing I can do to help you and you might as well move along (wait, please don’t go, I need the clicks and validation). Still though…Hemispheres might be an album that needs a little introduction. See, this ain’t the Sleep of yore; this is either a revitalized and refreshed lineup ready for a killer second half to the band’s tenure, or it’s the Al Cisneros show and none of them really know when to hang up the name.

It is always my immense pleasure to review a new Dreamwell album whenever the opportunity arises. They are a band whose tenacity is inspiring to me, always managing to push through stumbling blocks to deliver a vital, authentic truth to the world. Hymns for the Denial of God is the next chapter in the band's ever-shifting attempt at being themselves, and might just see them pull it off the most effortlessly.

Multiple posts from us again today?? What a time to be alive! Hey check out this tour I am already planning around. Insomnium and Amorphis are co-headlining a North America run this November. Better still, they'll be supported by Hinayana who I very much enjoyed since... well, their very beginning. Tickets are on sale at this link. Screw it. A second November tour.

We're officially in the final third of the year, which we means all of have a lot of catching up to do as we start to consider our 2026 lists. No, I'm not even remotely ready for such an endeavor either... but I've been in this exact position each year for a solid decade now so what are ya gonna do?

Cold icewinds sweep my weightless body over the bridge to unknown lands. The fog was thick before me as I fell into the unknown realms. The darkness had fallen before me, as I saw my body fall into the ground. I am far away, I am far away from the sun… Beyond All Horizons features shorter reviews dedicated solely to black metal: a…

Here I am again, piecing together four pieces of news from the inbox I'm moderately interested in before I return to my mile-high pile of photos to edit. Sounds like a Monday! We can open up the account with Slovakian black metal outfit Krolok and their new track "Súľov". That's the first to be revealed from Hričov-Súľov-Lietava, their third album set for a September 25th via Osmose Productions.

Sometimes you’re the hammer and sometimes you’re the…chainsaw. All depends on perspective but try not to be the nail in that scenario, that just sucks. Anway, glad you’re back with us here on Initial Descent so we can take a look into this week’s crystal ball of new stuff. We’ll kick things off with the insane blackened death metal of…

The 455th edition of the Nine Circles Playlist is literally working on the catch-up for July and August, so really the only thing I've been listening to over and over are those albums...which does indeed include some preliminary thoughts on the new Mastodon. So I'm going to let others take the ball this week when it comes to picks.

It’s been a while since I’ve had two drops in a week, but I feel very strongly that neither this album nor this beer can be skipped, ignored or postponed. You really have no idea what you’re in for with this one. Only thing you can do is drink from the cup of heresy. This week’s offerings: Agonanist’s The Spirit of Gravity…