Mystic Circle: Mystic Circle

Mystic Circle are a notable underground Black/Death metal act from Germany. They retired the band in 2007 after seven studio albums and numerous tours alongside heavyweights such as Marduk, Gorgoroth, and Dimmu Borgir.

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent time spent at home has provided the impetus for reforming and writing new music. Long-time member Beelzebub is joined by A. Blackwar for the bands new self-titled album due for release via Atomic Fire on February 4th.

It’s probably obvious - and therefore doesn’t need to be said - but Mystic Circle play a particularly Blasphemous brand of Black/Death Metal. If one of the members taking on the moniker Beelzebub wasn’t enough, just take a look at the track listing. This sort of overt devil worship might make-or-break the release for some people, but it doesn’t generally attract my criticism if the song writing and performance is strong, as is the case on this release.

The two members contribute significantly, sharing credits for vocals, guitars and keyboards. Beelzebub gets sole Bass guitar credits and A. Blackwar is the single contributor on Drums.

Stylistically the album is a good mix of Black Metal and Death metal - the vocals have a black metal flavour to them, and the instrumentation is varied, sharing similarities to both death metal and black metal at various stages. I was pleasantly surprised by the sprinkling of melodic hooks that are incorporated into the riffing and instrumentation on almost every track. Having some melodic passages helps to make a lot of the tracks quite memorable . There’s no doubt that the band has benefited from the significant hiatus - the two members seem to have had plenty of quality song ideas to draw from. Self-titled albums are often maligned as albums that don’t have their own identity or a strong concept / focal point. On the contrary, Mystic Circle is a strong and consistent album from start to finish and seems very focused in its execution. I listened to it on the pre-release stream to the point that I exhausted the allowable number of streams that my link would give me access to; No doubt a sign of an enjoyable release.

Recommended for fans of underground extreme Metal.

Track Listing

1. Belial Is My Name.
2. Seven Headed Dragon.
3. Hell Demons Rising.
4. Letters From The Devil.
5. Darkness In Flames.
6. The Arrival Of Baphomet.
7. Curse Of The Wolf Demon.
8. Satanic Mistress. Bonus Track (CD-digipak only!)
9. Death Metal (possessed cover)

Added: January 27th 2022
Reviewer: Chris Reid
Score:
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 638
Language: english

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