(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 59: The Mid-Year Metal Report

I’ll be honest: about half of my trip to Italy was spent listening to Italian progressive rock – mainly the Quella Vecchio Locanda debut, the debut from Le Orme I also picked up while at Discoteca Laziale in Rome, and some mid-70s Banco del Mutuo Soccorso. Another quarter was spent listening to David Bowie live albums, and then the last few days was a mad escapade trying to sort my mid-year report for Nine Circles. Usually I do nine records as part of our Nine Circles ov… series, but something happened. Turns out I loved metal this year. I think it gave me a lot of comfort in times of great stress and depression. So not nine, not even a baker’s dozen…but 32 albums, a tasting of which is presented for your perusal, enjoyment, or distress below.

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(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 58: My Voyage to Italy, Pt. 2

At the beginning of each year I create two “Smart” playlists in Apple Music: one that holds every albums I check out in the current year, and one that is just metal releases for the current year. It helps a lot come EOY time, and there’s a huge joy in then deleting all the music I didn’t like or purchase from the library. It’s cleansing, and feel good for the short period of time before it bloats back up with the new year’s releases. So to wrap up my Holiday Hiatus™ playlists, we’re hitting Shuffle again on the 2025 Music Playlist and see what spits out from this year. I’ll leave it to you to see if any of these are to your liking – I can’t guarantee they’re all to mine.

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