Circle

As soon as I popped this into the CD player I had to double check myself to make sure I had put in the right disc. Miljard holds on to very little of Circle's past. The band, whose sound had previously been marked by Hawkwind style swirling keyboards, krautraockesque repetition and a singer with a Metal screech that could raise hairs, seemed to have gone remarkably soft. This was the band that held the NWOFHM (New Wave of Finnish Heavy Metal) banner high. So, slate clean and forgetting all of that, this is a record of immense beauty and tenuous fragility. It teeters on the edge of tranquility and touches on themes of uncertainty. Long pieces are mired in slow drones and hesitant piano; unraveling into dark chasms of subtle fear. It seems that the boys in Circle have found a new way to express darkness. There is an overtly, uneasy nighttime feel to the album but it in no way touches on the evil impulses that were scattered in their vocal oriented work. Still, it seems that they have not gone soft at all, rather they've gone foreboding. Perhaps Circle just found greater unease in simplicity.

Download:
[MP3] Circle -Salenius
[MP3] Circle -Manni