Circle - Tulikoira (2005)

 

Cost: $2.00

I had never heard of these guys until after the Thor reissues on Ektro Records came out, exposing me to some of the other bands on the label roster. No surprise they flew under my radar, because even though they've been super prolific since starting in the early '90s, most of their material seems to be more prog. and psych-rock oriented with smatterings of metal/metal adjacent influences. Several years ago they actually leased out the band name to a completely different lineup who apparently recorded a death metal album, but alas, I've yet to hear anything from it. 

This particular album intrigued me since they were using the "New Wave of Finnish Heavy Metal" tag and in one instance, I saw it described as a mashup of '70s Judas Priest and psychedelic rock. Obviously my brain knew the music was going to fall far short of the lofty expectations any Priest comparison creates, but I was still very interested in hearing it. And again, we have something weird enough to get a track by track:

1. Rautakäärme 

This boils down to a minimalist ambient track broken up by two fast metallic sections, the second of which has soft, almost moaned vocals. I do agree with comments I've seen that these metal sections are very black metal sounding in approach, although I think it's stupid to assign any black metal tag to the band's sound as a whole.

 

2. Tulilintu

The "normal" song of the bunch, being the shortest at just under 4 min., and the most straightforward. In a retro late '70s metal/hard rock vein, although it feels punkier during the intro because of the gang shouts. The vocals remind me a lot of a Finnish version of Kai Hansen's Walls of Jericho vocals, and more specifically, some of the vocal patterns and mannerisms in this song make me think of the "Phantoms of Death" vox.

 

3. Berserk

Nothing heavy here, just a quirky and atmospheric 8 min. track with a lightly pulsing main riff. Feels kinda cosmic/psych-rock sounding at times due to the somewhat whale song-sounding guitarwork.

 

4. Puutiikeri 

This has a promising start, with about 3 min. of a recurring mid-paced anthemic riff that manages to be vaguely reminiscent of both "Holy Diver" and "Metal Gods" at the same time. I can't tell if the soft vocals are supposed to be emulation of an old man voice or a drunkard. Most of the rest of the 24 min. track (they heavy it back up for the last 20 seconds) is low-key and similar to "Berserk"--more on the atmospheric and ambient side, with random guitar effects, limited electronic effects, and strange vocal mutterings.

I found this to be quite underwhelming, although it's more odd than it is outright disappointing. It doesn't give me the feeling of having absolutely wasted two bucks like some discs do. But the heavier parts here feel woefully underdeveloped, and there's not nearly as much prog/psych/krautrock influence as I was expecting. The music feels way too lightweight and minimalist to justify the longer song lengths. Still, this wouldn't dissuade me from checking out some of their other material in the future.