Pitch Black Effects (CD - 2006)

Audio Mixers: Tue Madsen; Gail Liebling; Ronny Tijssen.

Recording information: Are U Recordings, Stein, The Netherlands (05/25/2005-07/02/2005).

Netherlands hardcore rockers Callenish Circle have all the requisite ingredients to rock your world--insanely tight, heavy guitar and drum riffs, vocals that seem to issue forth from one of the inner circles of Hell, and 10 crushingly noisy tracks to drive their point home. Song titles like "Sweet Cyanide," "Self Inflicted," and "Pitch Black" are self-explanatory--with PITCH. BLACK. EFFECTS, Callenish Circle seem hell-bent on replacing the Netherlands' centuries old-reputation for sweet reasonableness with musical Armageddon.

Dutch progressive metal quartet Callenish Circle's follow-up to 2003's searing My Passion Your Pain keeps up the momentum they've been building since signing with Metal Blade in 2002. Often lumped in with the Scandinavian death metal scene, the band has more in common with Western European industrial metal outfits like Nitzer Ebb and Rammstein than they do Opeth, but the techno-riddled onslaught that awaits listeners on Pitch Black Effects is steeped enough in classic metal imagery (death, fate, loss, grief) to please both purists and gas-mask-wearing nihilists alike. Callenish Circle is at its best when the sirens are on and the pedal is buried, and while the sequencers and samples provided by producer/keyboardist Gail Liebling (Gail of God) keep things interesting, it's the straight-ahead thrash of standout tracks like "Behind Lines" and "Sweet Cyanide" that will keep the foreheads slamming against the doors. ~ James Christopher Monger minimize