ALBUM REVIEW: Metamorphosis – The Circle
THE CIRCLE‘s debut offering is entitled Metamorphosis – a bleak odyssey into darkness and despair divided into four chapters of atmospheric black metal tracks. But, while the pitch and aims were ambitious, it seems the execution falls slightly short.
The album starts promisingly. War drums, rain sound effects, a thick sound palette that just screams despair. Unfortunately, it becomes clear pretty quickly that this band hasn’t nailed it quite yet. Obviously, there are infinite ways to interpret this kind of atmospheric metal, but for something with such an elaborate pitch and so much atmosphere created around the album – which is divided into chapters instead of tracks – it really feels like this band are missing some of the grandeur and excess which make a band like MY DYING BRIDE so incredibly show-stopping.
The song structures throughout are disappointingly conventional, with lyrics that scan a little too neatly, rhyme a little too perfectly. The unclean vocals are one of the album’s strongest elements – Asim Serah does a fantastic job making noises so brutal it smacks of last year’s exceptionally nasty ORANSSI PAZUZU record. But, once again, the landing isn’t quite stuck; the clean vocals are kind of ridiculous.
The issue is, that with music like this, you have to go all out if you’re going to take yourself this seriously. And while it’s clear this band has a solid foundation for creating an atmosphere full of misery, darkness and despair, it’s lacking that extra push to bring the music into proper dirge territory. They stop short just before reaching that point of excessive and overwhelming grief, which leaves the music sounding a little silly.
It’s a shame because it seems like THE CIRCLE have a lot of really brilliant starting points. Despair is a great track, with clean singing matched well with blast beats first, and then polyrhythms. But it only comes together right at the end of the track, and then the song ends – leaving the six minute build up feeling like it’s been slightly wasted.
Overall, this is an album that’s worth your time if you’re interested in this genre already. It’s not amazing, but it’s also pretty clear that a band with a foundation as solid as this can and will do better. THE CIRCLE may not have nailed it just yet, but that doesn’t mean they won’t in the future. This is good, but not great – and next time they will do better.
Rating: 5/10
Metamorphosis is set for release on April 23rd via self-release.
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