Initial Descent: March 19 – 25, 2017

Nine Circles

Twilight Fauna

The weekend, FINALLY. For those of us who actually have weekends off you know it’s something we look forward to and for those of you that never get a weekend off my heart goes out to you, seriously. Whether you’re off or working or whatever, thank you for stopping by and we have a killer bunch of releases to get to so, shall we? In pole position this week is The Year the Stars Fell from Twilight Fauna and on this release black metal collides with emotional heft, Appalachian themes and astoundingly heavy atmosphere that transcends music in a general sense and goes straight for the heart and mind, give yourself over to this album completely and the reward will be monumental. Next up is Memoriam with For the Fallen and honestly this record gives me chills for a couple reasons: the tie in with Bolt Thrower and just…

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Album Review: Twilight Fauna – “The Year the Stars Fell”

Nine Circles

Push away the tags, move past the labels and niches of “Appalachian metal” and “black/neofolk” that have been used to describe Twilight Fauna and artist Paul Ravenwood over the years. The concept of music recalling and communicating a sense of place, of community and time is well and good and entirely accurate, but there’s another layer to what Ravenwood is unraveling for the listener in Twilight Fauna’s latest, The Year the Stars Fell. By weaving his musical heritage into his own personal history Ravenwood exposes a raw nerve of grief and tragedy, a painful narrative buried deep under a foundation of feedback waiting for someone to take the time to dig.  

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Mulligan’s Stew: a Collection of Leftover Releases

Nine Circles

There have been lot of new and awesome albums released in 2017. Unfortunately, a lot of releases get overlooked for coverage by the release date due to limited resources (or interest). These are a collection of releases that for no fault of their own, did not get picked for coverage on their own. That could be because no one knew what they were, no one cared, or we just missed them because we suck. I wanted to take some time and discuss five of these releases. These releases have nothing to do with each other and would probably never be put together other than they unfortunately are all getting reviewed by me.

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PICK OF THE WEEK: Twilight Fauna push deeper into rustic folk on rousing ‘The Year the Stars Fell’

Meat Mead Metal

How many albums or how many songs do you hear each year that give you a glimpse into the creator’s homeland and the traditions held within. Not many, right? And that’s OK. Not every band is resigned to bringing their homeland or territory into their sounds (well, at least if they’re not European), and often what we get is devoid of the strains of where one calls their dwelling.

That’s beginning to shift a bit when it comes to American metal, and Twilight Fauna is one of the bands helping make that so. Long helmed by Johnson City, Tenn.’s own Paul Ravenwood, his band’s music has rounded more toward the Appalachian sounds in recent year. The band’s latest album, the excellent “The Year the Stars Fell,” continues along those dusty, foot traffic-battered roads, giving you a deep breath of air from where he grew up and formed into the person…

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Meat Mead Metal Premiere: First taste of Twilight Fauna’s rustic new journey ‘Falling Portraits’

Meat Mead Metal

So, we don’t do a ton of song premieres around here. There’s no big reason for that. But we certainly pick and choose what we want to do, and when the time’s right, we’re always happy to do a track debut.

We’ve been big fans of Twilight Fauna for a long time now. It’s the project long helmed by Ravenwood, who handles just about every element of what’s going on here. He’s always brought a woodsy, rustic approach to his melodic and atmospheric black metal, and the new Twilight Fauna record “The Year the Stars Fall” is an incredible document that grips from the start and doesn’t let go until the album subsides six tracks later. He’s joined on the record by drummer Josh Thieler (of Pittsburgh maulers Slaves BC), and the two converged to record what you’re hearing toward the end of 2016.

Today, we bring to you “Falling…

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This Friday, Stand with Bandcamp in Support of Immigrants/Basic Human Values

Best of 2016: Josh’s List

Nine Circles

Outside of metal so much happened this year that it really is mind boggling to think back on it. We lost visionaries and legends, witnessed violence of epic proportions, politics took a huge dive into the void and negativity seemed to reign supreme. And all that is barely scratching the surface. I’m definitely not going to be the one to say that 2017 WILL be better but I will say — let’s attempt to make our little corners of the worldbetter, be better to each other and approach it with some semblance of positivity.

On the flip side of the coin, 2016 was about as strong a year in metal that I personally have seen in ages which was a great thing considering the state of affairs otherwise. As usual, metal was my comfort food and the offerings were bountiful. With that said,making a best of list was extremely difficult.What…

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Album Review and Interview: Call of the Void – “AYFKM”

Nine Circles

Call of the Void is a relatively young band for as much as they have accomplished since forming. They signed a deal with Relapse Records before releasing their debut in 2013. Their records have been solid and reviewed positively across the board. They’ve toured extensively with awesome bands like Bleak and Inter Arma: making a reputation on fantastic and intense live shows. AYFKM is their first release since losing their vocalist after releasing Ageless in 2015. With their crushing live performance and praise-worthy studio releases, I had no worries about how the new release would be.

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Best of 2016: Jonathan Petkau’s List

Nine Circles

Many of you know Jonathan Petkau from his podcast Respectably Loud or his other podcast, which he does with his wife, The X-Hausted Files or from his tireless efforts with the almighty Skulltoaster on Metal Minute or from his black metal project Domestikwom or possibly for keeping the list for MetalBandCampGiftClub nice and tidy. To say Jon is a busy man is an understatement and what I’ve mentioned doesn’t even include Dad duties. So, it is with extreme pleasure and appreciation that we are able to present his Best of 2016 list. Honestly I don’t know where he finds the time to listen to music at all but even the busiest of people need a soundtrack so without further ado, click that continue reading button and jump in.

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Best of 2016: Chris’s List

Nine Circles

End of the year, ladies and gentlemen. The time when lists flow like liquor at an office party, where the online community comes together as one gargantuan digital animal to do what it does best: nitpick, subtweet, and throw so many accusations of pandering, overrated and “hipster” picks that come December 31st we’ll all be sick and tired and never want to do this shit again.

Until next year, of course.  When we’ll do it all over again.

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