I could beat my chest in with my fist while listening to this album, and did so on repeat while waiting for the full Appalling Ascension to arrive in my inbox for review. The three tracks that are available on the 20 Bucks Spin’s Band Camp page were enough to make me already pledge my love to The Ominous Circle. That love was given to me before I even knew they existed, like a fabled savior.
Debuting from Portugal, the masked figures of The Ominous Circle have a pretty crushing old school death metal album to offer the world, one of which is sure to be well received by metal fans on the internet.
The album consists of eight tracks, two of which may only be worth listening to if you find the art behind an album’s composition and layout necessary or appealing. If not? Skip the intro and track four as they are both void of coherence and are strictly ambience. You will find that the music appears to draw influence from typical old school death metal that is reminiscent of Morbid Angel and newer dark death metal like Phobocosm. Each song is unique enough that the album doesn’t sound like one long track that drives your ears to numbness, and yet there is a familiarity and uniformity to the entire composition. Groovy, slow yet not painfully or overly abundant, intricate, guttural, upbeat and definitely old school death metal. You can actually head bang like it’s 1995 again.
Currently listeners may sample three songs for free on the band’s Bandcamp profile via their American label, here. It would be advantageous for self-professed metal heads to check The Ominous Circle out before one finds themselves to be behind the power curve of decent underground bands. I expect this band to become the next big thing.
For fans of: Morbid Angel, Septycal Gorge, Pessimist, Phobocosm, Exhumed, and Iniquity.
Best Track: “As the Worm Descends”
