ALBUM REVIEW: Departed Souls – Magic Circle

Musical trends often come full circle and certain genres enjoy somewhat of a renaissance. This is most certainly the case for doom metal in recent times with plenty of fresh young bands coming out and breathing new life in to the sub-genre that started it all. MAGIC CIRCLE are one of the bands riding high on our desire for nostalgia and longing for the good old days. Now, armed with their sophomore full length effort Departed Souls the band are looking to make themselves a house hold name and to take themselves to the next artistic level.

This album is a real trip back to the old school heavy metal. From the very outset of the opening eponymous track Departed Souls you can hear that the band worship the godfathers of doom BLACK SABBATH and PENTAGRAM, fully embracing the 1970s to ’80s style in to their sound. The drums sound very full and are mastered perfectly by Andy Pearce. The guitars from Dan Ducas and Chris Corry contrast each other wonderfully with one providing the genres droning, meandering sound and the other using a number of different effects to create an intriguing tone for the lead work, adding another layer of melody to proceedings. One surprising thing to be noted on this song is the fact that the bass is so low in the mix. Usually with music of this ilk relies on heavily distorted bass lines to lay the dense foundations that the rest of the song is laid upon. The vocals from Brendan Radigan on this track resemble the great Ozzy Osbourne in his prime without coming across as a bad impersonation. In this case he holds his pitch and sings in more of a controlled way than the Ozzman ever did.

The third song on Departed Souls, Valley Of The Lepers, shows the band raising their creative game to a new level and delivering over seven minutes of retro heavy metal. The slow pace in the early stages gives the heavily distorted guitars a chance to breathe in the mix to devastating effect. When the vocals come in, Radigan shows another voice entirely as he negotiates the very peak of his register with the kind of rasp that both Axl Rose and Ronnie James Dio utilised so well in their prime. The middle section of the song really gives the guitarists a chance to shine with one providing a brilliant melodic section for the other to lay down a tasteful, well written guitar solo over the top which sounds superb. The final third of the song shows MAGIC CIRCLE changing direction again, picking up the pace more than they have throughout the entirety of Departed Souls so far and embracing the sound of bands such as DEEP PURPLE and RAINBOW before once again showing their musical dexterity by reverting back to a slow, crushingly heavy outro to see out the song.

Towards the back end of Departed Souls is the track Gone Again, which begins with a glacial paced introduction that gives Radigan another chance to show off his impressive vocal range which drive the song onward which once again proves that the boys clearly know how to utilise their number one asset. The guitars are very minimal, but have the kind of tone than most guitarists would dream of attaining with the level of distortion sounding raw, yet not reliant on gain and distortion. Sometimes less is indeed more. The minute of the keys, backing vocals and guitars all work together wonderfully to create layer upon layer of melody and this is no more apparent than when the superb guitar solo comes in at the mid stage of the song and sounds like it could have come directly from the hands of the great Tony Iommi himself. The maturity of the songwriting here is simply outstanding and greatly surpasses the heights that many bands could reach in the entirety of the year and MAGIC CIRCLE are amazingly only at the release of the sophomore album.

All in, Departed Souls is a tremendous step forward for MAGIC CIRCLE as a band. The band have managed to toe the line wonderfully of paying homage to their heroes and greatest influences without treading on their toes and being accused of ripping them off. If this is the kind of quality that the band can deliver at this early stage of the year then it is very exciting to see what they can do on their next release, especially if MAGIC CIRCLE continue to develop their own sound.

Rating: 8/10

Departed Souls is out now via 20 Buck Spin.