Circle—Making Rounds Around The Square

Screaming is a national art in Finland. They even have a men's choir (30 members strong) that shouts everything from pop hits to national anthems. But then Finland is also the country with the strongest Tango musical line after Argentina. You also have everything in between. So it might be no wonder that the newest Circle album, Terminal (one of the 52 they made, although some accounts say it is over 60!) includes almost any modern rock style imaginable (screams included, of course). No tango though, a shame, I think they could have fitted it in!

These guys obviously have an exhaustive musical knowledge and they definitely know how to handle it and transform it into their own music. Over 26 years playing on the scene will definitely do it, although only Jussi Lehtisalo, the bass player is the one original member who remains until today. They do gather members from various other Finnish bands playing different versions of rock (any wonder?)—from psychedelic folk to metal.

And it is that metal, or shall I say almost metal filter that everything on Terminal is being put through. Whether it is straight ahead hard rock, krautrock, progressive, 60s psych, you can add the rest as you go along. What is funny, even people who are not overt fans of hard rock/metal genre (myself included) can find this album "easy" on their ears—because they’ve got (almost) all of everybody’s favourites mixed in—Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, The Stooges, Alice Cooper, New, and that almost title goes to their experimental countrymen Pharaoh Overlord, to whom they recently devoted a whole album (I’m not sure they would be able to tell you which number that one is).

The introductory "Rakkauta Al Dente" sets the tone with its deep guitar riffs, krautrock-like backbeat and yes, screaming that suddenly gets a xylophone backing. If it sounds strange it is, but it is, at the same time, entrancing, pulling you deep into the music. The title track brings in the reminder of such modern-day purveyors of psychedelia like Spacemen 3, but then brings in more "standard" indie rock sounds akin to grunge and a touch of Middle Eastern spice. "Imperiumi" stand for empire in Finnish, but it is also one of the largest heavy metal sites in Scandinavia. And the track sound more or less as the band’s version of “The Empire Strikes Back” heavy and burdening. And you get a general idea that this was exactly the way the wanted it.

"Kill City" reminds us of the times when bands like Sisters Of Mercy and Goth ruled the music world in the second part of the 80s, but instead of just making it heavy, Circle brings in quite a solid melody to boot. “Sick Child" on the other hand is pure psychedelia in its more conventional terms and it is the track that will be the easiest to digest for those listeners that are new to the band. All in all, it is an album that has so many layers behind the heaviness that is evident on the cursory listen. And the more you listen to it, the more those layers unfold.

What is particularly impressive about Circle is that everything they do is not only done with dexterity brought by the knowledge of the medium they are handling, but also with imagination and firm tongue in cheek. When asked recently about a comment made by a Swedish journalist who proclaimed them the greatest rock band in the world, they responded something like, "don’t know about that, but we’re definitely close.”

Don’t know about that one myself either, but I’ll definitely have to play Terminal one more time to hear what I’ve missed so far.