I'll be honest with you - I'm not doing great. You can imagine why; once again, my home country of Israel, which I can never really escape, has been plunged into turmoil. Being honest again, I don't really want to go into the politics or the details. By now, you should know my position about occupation and oppression. What I do want to do though is sink into the escape of music, especially aggressive and heavy music. Luckily, Cirkeln always seems to have what I need. I've been covering and premiering this project for years now but "The Witch Bell" might be my favorite track that I've covered so far for its thrashy and unrelenting take on the Cirkeln black metal style. Head on down below to dive in!
Embed code:It also helps that, as per usual with the project, the lyrics are unequivocally leftist and rebellious. I just love how they work with the absolutely furious main riff of the track and the many iterations it goes through. At times, it feels like early Metallica before twisting into the haggard and abrasive second wave black metal sounds at the core of Cirkeln's sound. I also think the hardcore-adjacent and thrash infused style of the vocals works incredibly well here, granting the track the unbridled violent and derisive feel that the instruments are going for. My absolute favorite though has to be the glorious and explosive solo near the end of the track and how it works with the final iterations of the chorus, leading into the grandiose outro of the track.
This track comes to us off The Primitive Covenant, Cirkeln's next release which is due on November 3rd from the fantastic True Cult Records (these guys run a lot of great bands, including Ayloss' projects, Sacred Son, and many more). Head on over to their Bandcamp below to pre-order this one; it's going to be one of the best black metal releases of the year.
Ryan