NWOFHM #8: Skulls, swords and masterful sauna fuckery
The band has a highly varied and large discography but the release of a surprising death metal album in 2013 (Incarnation) played entirely by session members. Nonetheless the metal factor was already present throughout many of their previous releases such as Tulikoira (2005), Katapult (2007), Hollywood (2008), Rautatie (2010) but was never totally and fully explored until recently.
Circle
are truly an interesting entity, formed in the early 1990s by Jussi
Lehtisalo and it's been his main creative focus since then. If you've
been following this series of reviews (that's probably not the
case!), you're aware that this eccentric
Finn
has been
producing a
wide catalog of music, often under the NWOFHM (New Wave of Finnish
Heavy Metal) banner. Bands with weird monikers like Krypt Axeripper,
Steel Mamoth, Pharaoh
Overlord, Aktor
or Arkhamin Kirjasto became staples of my musical diet and I felt
ready to tackle the
main course,
the legendary
Circle.
Sunrise
was definitely one of these “almost”
metal albums,
it's an amalgamation of many genres into one potent but very
rewarding experience. I liked all the Circle albums I checked,
there's so many that
I
haven't heard them all yet but there's always a will to experiment
and go forward while maintaining an unparalleled atmospheric
approach. Their usual sound is a mix of droney experimental rock
either instrumental or with unorthodox vocals. An
album like Mountain (2005) is a great example of tenebrous
drone/experimental/post rock with its two sinuous and long tracks.
Sunrise has
some of this cuisine on its menu but it's
also incorporating
a
lot of rock and some metal influences. Almost
a decade before Pharaoh Overlord's Out of Darkness, there's certainly
some similarity between these
two. Repetitiveness is one of Circle's main tool and they use it well
for metallic and rock songs like the opener “Nopeuskuningas”.
It's
almost kraut metal as
the main heavy and catchy riff is repeated endlessly while these
insane vocals are unleashed and then, a psychedelic solo appears and
tries to make its way through the might of THE riff for almost three
minutes and finally
succeeds.
The
song structures are out there and interesting enough and despite the
repetitiveness, it's never boring or too much as the songs are not
that long (except that final drone track). They know when to change
the tempos and when to incorporate well thought moments of colorful
joy (just
like the glorious artwork)
The
musicianship, like
on every Circle album, is impressive and complex in its apparent
simplicity. Lehtisalo's leadership is always felt throughout his
bass playing (he probably plays the guitar on this album too, the
credits are unclear about what each member is playing). It's at its
core a prog rock/krautrock record so the guitar, both electric and
acoustic, are the focus here but there's also some other instruments
like the violin (track 6) and some electronic overtones that
are included. Concerning
the electronic side of their music, it's
nothing compared to some of their other albums like 2011's Infektio.
Get
ready to travel everywhere with this album, the second song is some
sort of proggy folk pop in Finnish (well, in fact, the whole album is
and that's wonderful) and as far as I know (I know nothing about
that), it's influenced by native Finnish music. It sounds a bit like
the Nordic Canadian music the Innu people make (check out track 4 for
another example). This seems to be a mess on paper, right? Well, no
it's not, even though the album is fairly diverse and goes from
metallic hard rockish drone kraut experimental rock to atmospheric
folky and sometimes joyful territories. It's
highly condensed and has an extraordinary vision of
how it should be, of how it should be constructed and how it should
sound.
Sunrise
is pretty much a timeless record as it's taking a metallic sort of
70s hard rock, some stoner rock
and they
threw
it in a huge blender with
krautrock
and a bunch of psychedelic rock. It's
timeless because it's
still undeniably an oeuvre of its time and
that's probably due to the idiosyncratic nature of Finland's musical
scene, it
doesn't try to be original, it simply is, effortlessly. With
the use of clean but highly
emphasized
vocals,
a given for Jussi Lehtisalo's projects, the band goes deeper and
deeper into
mad realms of genius artistry. I mean, the band was never quite
accessible but this album is probably one of their most “gettable”
as it's tight and catchy. It's a good way to get into them, I'd say.
Mix
Led Zeppelin, Can and Finland
and you'll get Circle, one of Earth's best and most original bands.
Sunrise is a memorable album and the one I picked as my first review
but you can't hardly go wrong with any of 'em.
While
I'm the sauna, start your Circle exploration without me, you'll get
lost but that's part of the process.
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