Nice one.
You'll know if you've read my mumblings that the biographies that accompany many of the promos we get to review and I don't get along. Nine times out of ten they mention bands that don't sound anything like the act being reviewed, yet because they come from roughly the same genres, then that will do.
The bio that accompanied this Circle Of Silence album 'The Rise Of Resistance', mentioned US power metal, Iced Earth, Brainstorm and Primal Fear as reference pointers and those let me say for once are not actually far off the mark in pinpointing this band's sound. Having those bands as a starting point, and knowing that Circle Of Silence have also recorded a very powerful album full of excellent hard hitting songs coupled with a big production, is a bit of a bonus as well.
Opening the album there's 'Blood Of Enemies' and 'Eyes Of Anarchy', both heavy tracks but both also full of angry riffs and roaring vocals that roll into big chorus lines that build over the length of the tracks to great effect. Then there's 'Mind Conspiracy' which has a Priest/Saxon like heart at its musical core; once more the riffs abound and the chorus nails itself to the walls of your mind, staying long after the music has finished. 'The Final Chapter' is another hook-filled track with the added bonus of a brilliant guitar solo from Tobias Pfahl. 'Reborn From Darkness' and 'The Architect Of Immortality' close the album in fine style with each track pounding your ears into submission, the band also never forgetting the need for a great melody along with all the metal they have put on show.
Yeah, they're a heavy in your face metal band who are as subtle as a charging bull. Yet Circle Of Silence have remembered the one thing needed for great metal music throughout the whole of this album, which is that if you're going to be loud and proud you also must have a lot of melodic refrains running through the music, otherwise it just becomes a noise.
COS have nailed those refrains easily. Nice one.
Ian Johnson
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