This Finnish band released their debut as long as 1991, and if RYM are to be believed (and I generally find the site infallible), they have released north of thirty studio albums since then, of which this is the latest. I had the misfortune to be sent a photo of the band, and it has been a while since I have seen people of a certain age wearing that much bright pink spandex, and once that vision has been put in front of your eyes you can’t unsee it, more’s the pity. So, it would be incredibly easy to discount Circle as being a comic band, but while there is obviously a large part of that within their makeup, there is also something quite unusual and serious happening within the music.
Here we have a band that explore sonic soundscapes, venturing curiously into terrains of Stooges-esque swagger, trance-inducing kraut rock mantras, beautiful electronic ambience, psychedelic rock noodling, arena storming AOR weirdness, '70s prog rock extravagance, glam pop pomp, and of course their core sound, heavy metal, not to mention other peculiar and daring sounds that simply cannot be pigeonholed. Intrigued? Well, you should be. This is music that somehow sounds fuzzed out and distorted from the Seventies, with all these different musical styles and fashions coming together, but the result is an album that is incredibly impressive. The more I play it, the more I like it, and if you enjoy experiencing something that is out of left field yet also somehow being quite mainstream, then this could well be of interest.
