Peace, love and death metal

Swedish army of the apocalypse Circle Six have one of the greatest band names I know. Easy to remember with a cool ring in it, it comes from the sixth circle of hell, the home of the heretics, and it suits their music oh so well. I don’t mean that they’re heretics, I mean their sound is hellish.

Circle Six’s (members having names like Retaliation, Dawn and Roswell in their history) latest release is a four track demo from 2005, holding inside some 30-minutes plus of slow and crushing slowcore/sludge/doom metal. Hank’s agonizing vocals place music firmly on the same league as Cult Of Luna and the likes, although guitars and rhythm section brings a lot of doom metal groove into their music. Overall atmosphere is that of the end of the world; whereas bands like Isis and Neurosis have some of that beautiful sense of hope in their repeative riffing, Circle Six is beyond all that, left with only filth & misery to work with.

Four tracks share lot of same elements, however, luckily there is enough variation to keep the listener interested. Standout track is absolutely the last one, “Broken”, with its heavy as hell riffs and atmosphere that leaves me hopeless.

The promotional copy came with just a cd-r wrapped in plastic bag w/a single-paged cover, so that leaves something to be desired (I don’t know if that’s the original package). You can download two tracks from the band site. The whole demo is available for streaming and downloading at Circle Six’s Myspace.

Circle Six - “All That Is Left” mp3
Circle Six - “Broken” mp3