Magic Circle – Magic Circle (Armageddon Shop)
Fucking finally. After a few years of hearsay (the band's internet presence is only slightly higher than jack shit), occasional live shows, and an EP that went out of print almost immediately, the world can finally hear Magic Circle. It is about goddamn time this saw the light of day, and this album completely justifies any wait. The band's pedigree gives little indication of their approach, with members' contributions to the nouveau power violence of Mind Eraser, the traditionalist hardcore of Rival Mob, the Oi/NWOBHM hybrid of Battle Ruins, and the late-Entombed/Thin Lizzy hybrid of Doomriders doing little to logically antecede the sort of doom metal in which Magic Circle engages.
But to stick with that genre tag sells short Magic Circle's music as much as judging them by their members' other endeavors. While there's little questions that this is doom through and through, theirs is a meticulously constructed version replete with harmonized guitars, enough tempo variation to remain interesting, and a melodic bent strong enough that these songs might be unwilling to depart a listener's head after working their way in. Some of it has a Pagan Altar feel to it, a comparison bolstered by Brendan Radigan's vocals, albeit with less of an emphasis on sludgy gloom and a tendency towards more uptempo (though not upbeat) material a la Witchfinder General at their best. Like any number of melodically-inclined heavy bands of recent years, the Pallbearers and Graveyards of the world, Magic Circle has come up with a set of material that's accessible enough to appeal to people who might not necessarily own any Saint Vitus albums but reverent and executed well enough that it could easily catch on with diehard genre purists.
Comparisons and ease of listening aside, Magic Circle's album is a fucking monster. What the band does isn't new by any stretch of the imagination, but it's executed well enough that the degree to which they rely on traditionalism is beside the point. If any doubt existed that doom metal could still be a fecund creative force after four and a half decades, the continued outcropping of bands like this - ones who can understand what made their predecessors' work function without imitating it directly - would easily demonstrate that there's ground yet to break, even if it's to harvest from previously mined veins.