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CIRLCE OF FEAR :
PAIN... SCARS... HEALING

This brutal band, from Paulsboro New Jersey in the good ol' US of A, is just what the doctor ordered! Well, a demented doctor anyway. The thing these guys are hip to is splicing together old-school Death-Metal and old-school Thrash. The outcome is some serious gut-pounding Metal. The vocals from Chris Natalini range from a typical Death growl, to a more gravelly, sort of shouted approach. So, sometimes you can actually make out some lyrics! The music is ultra heavy, ranging from super-fast riffs, and solos (courtesy of Dave Snedeker and the now departed Carl), to mid-paced, head-bangin' chugs. The drums, pounded on by Jim Fare, come across as really fat sounding. Now, I don't know if it was the production on this thing or what, but I was playing it in the car, loud, but not too loud, and the car started to shake during the unrelenting blast beats! Now, either those drum beats and my car, share the exact same harmonic resonance, or that is some fuckin' serious bottom end! Which is added to by Matthias Givens on bass. The songs are varied and memorable. Well, memorable if there is anything left of your brains afterwards. The band also employs some cool sound clips from some of my all time favorite movies such as; Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven", "Tombstone", "Army Of Darkness", "Blade", and many more. For those of you that like your Metal real, as well as a tad retro sounding, and need to avoid anything "Nu", then this is for you. For more info on this fuckin' heavy band, check out circleoffear.com.
RATING = 8 Thrashy Death-Metal (Released 2002)

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CIRLCE OF FEAR :
WHEN DEMENTIA SETS IN (UNMIXED 3-SONG PROMO)

The hard working boys from Paulsboro New Jersey are back! Well, in truth, they're almost back. Right now they're working on their second full-length effort entitled "When Dementia Sets In". In the mean time however, the band has sent me this advanced promo CD featuring rough mixes of three of the new songs that are slated to appear on said opus. The tracks are; "Divine Circle Of The Ungodly Five", "As The Sky Wept", and "Detached". Since we last heard from the band, there has been a line up change. We now have Brian Keeley filling in the rotating lead guitar slot. Now, it's hard to judge such a CD as this. I mean three rough, or basically unmixed tunes, is hardly indicative of what the final outcome of the album will be like. On the other hand, that's what I'm here for, so lets take a look at what's offered here. Basically, this stuff is not much removed from what we saw on "Pain...Scars...Healing". If anything, I would say that the Thrash side of the band is now a tad more prominent, and there may even be small hints of Black-Metal creeping into their complex sound. No, they aren't turning into Darkthrone or Cradle Of Filth or anything like that, but there were a few moments where I was reminded of Dimmu Borgir, ...but that might have just been a pure intensity thing. I also thought I caught a couple moments, very minor mind you, that could qualify as Metalcore. Then again, maybe I was just on crack. These moments flew by rather fast, and it was kind of hard to tell. Anyway, it's all still heavy as hell, with roots firmly planted in old-school Death-Metal, but the boys might be ready to expand their sonic boundaries a bit. I guess we'll have to wait for the "real" disc to see what happens. As a stand alone EP, this disc is naturally a little rough around the edges, but it proves the band is heading in a good direction, and is by no means ready to wimp out.
RATING = 6.5 Thrashy Death-Metal (Released 2004)

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