This is not summer music – however as Mother Nature is showing her wrath around the world causing death and destruction on a biblical scale this collection of dark atmospheric doomy metal seems to fit.
The Circle are a three piece from Germany featuring Lahore born Assim Searah on vocals – you may recognise him for his time as guitarist and backing vocalist for Wintersun who joined this year along with drummer Phillipp Wende. Before these two jumped aboard The Circle was a solo affair piloted by Stanley Robertson who handled all instruments on 2021’s Metamorphosis .
Of Awakening is 5 tracks of prog infused black tinged doom death which are equally heavy on atmosphere and melody. The trio are wading through the same eerie brackishness as Septic Flesh with the filth and urgency existing alongside pomp and grandiosity.
Opener “Ruins, My Dying World” mixes blast beats with strings, black metal roars with chantlike cleans to good effect. The track is shot through with melody which is sometimes smothered by the more extreme passages which unfortunately makes the waters a little murky.
The Circle have invited Melbournite Proggers Ne Obliviscaris to join them for the title track which is filled with strings and rises and falls like a wooden ship on the North Sea. The violin solo at the end of the track is dripping with melancholy and I imagine the poor bow wielder going down on a stricken vessel as they lament.
Searah gets to open up his larynx further on Afflux and the crushed velvet influence of West Yorkshire is evident throughout this 4-minute centrepiece. The back end of the album is a little more sedate than the opening two tracks with the melody allowed more of a foothold in the tracks and Afflux is the bridge that allows passage to this change.
Reign of the Black Sun `along with Ashes and Fading Tides combine for 14 minutes of epic proggy heaviness that combine some moments of grandeur with great drama. Searah juxtaposes soaring cleans with rasped bellows to good effect with the music mixing melodic death with gothic doom to give him the perfect bed to weave his melancholic tales.
What The Circle offer is nothing new but their take on atmospheric extremity with symphonic elements is effective in carrying the listener away to a windswept cliff to rage at an incoming storm, whilst of course wearing crushed velvet and tight trousers. It’s grandiose and theatrical without stepping over the line into parody. The spiked bracelets, corpse paint and white hi tops are still very much part of the bands metaphorical uniform and the music is all the better for it.
I look forward to many repeat listens.
(7/10 Matt Mason)
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