Circle :: what album is their best

Listening now. Its p cool but Antti Boman >>>>>>> Aaron Turner

That said, they've come some way since Zero; I'm liking this more tbrr

album is a huge grower ime, repeat listens have turned my personal rating from a 7 to a 9

so glad that this record has materialized

https://www.sonofmarketing.com/2020/12/02/my-awesome-guest-list-pharaoh-overlord

so that's my new listening sorted for the weekend

this album just gets better every time I hear it

Maybe this is old news to some of you, but poking around the Domino bandcamp page, I see that they've got a collaborative album with Richard Dawson due out in November, Henki.

some further info, apparently just announced today:

Richard Dawson is the diminutive Geordie troubadour whose moving songs have been described as state-of-the-nation addresses, even — or perhaps especially — when he’s singing about pre-medieval peasants. Circle are the genre-straddling pioneers of The New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal, known for wearing spandex or dead fish onstage and singing in a made-up language.

Together they are… Richard Dawson & Circle! Today, we are pleased to announce news of their collaborative album Henki, due November 26th via Weird World. Their epic joint record might seem a departure to those who are most familiar with Dawson from recent solo albums like 2017’s Peasant and 2020 (released in 2019). In fact, Henki fits comfortably into the bigger picture of two acts who have always strived for uninhibited originality.

The first track to be shared from Henki is “Lily”—less directly botanic and more about the ghostly visions experienced by Dawson’s mother when she worked as a nurse in Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary. “Lily”’s video, directed by Mika Taanila, features Richard Dawson challenging snooker hero Steve Davis to a tense game, even if we’re quite sure how the result will pan out. The video receives its world premiere today via World Snooker—the site's first-ever music video feature. Watch it below.

Dawson explains the album’s title: “The word 'henki' roughly translates as 'spirit'. It's a very rich word, supple in its meaning in the same way as the Geordie 'canny'; difficult to pin down.” True to its name, while Henki is influenced in part by heavy metal bands, it does not sound like any metal album you will have heard before. For one thing, few metal albums are filled with songs about plants. Each of Henki’s seven tracks deal with special plants throughout history, inspired by Circle’s guitarist Janne Westerlund instructing the group during recording to be less straightforward and more “like a plant.” He elaborates: “full of irregularities and unexpected details, and still they have an identifiable form…an organic growth within a certain shape.”

As mutual fans of each other, Circle and Dawson originally hit it off via Twitter, which led to Dawson being invited to accompany Circle for their set at Helsinki’s Sideways Festival in 2019. Dawson recalls the moment: “It was like being a teenager and suddenly being asked to go onstage with Iron Maiden. That’s how important this band are to me.” Having pulled that off, they started exchanging demos before they finally got in a room together to set off on their journey proper. Most of the recording took place in Pori—a fine jewel of a city on Finland's balmy west coast—across several visits, the last being in late January 2020 just as Covid-19 first reached Europe. From there, they had to finish Henki remotely, via waves of pure thought beamed across the dark dividing oceans betwixt them, and email.

Easily the greatest flora-themed hypno-folk-metal record you’ll hear this year, Henki adds an electrifying new chapter to the remarkable story of each act, marking the beginning of a beautiful partnership.

Circle, described as "the world’s greatest band - in every category” are Pekka Jääskeläinen (guitar), Julius Jääskeläinen (guitar), Jussi Lehtisalo (bass, voice), Mika Rättö (keyboard, voice), Tomi Leppänen (drums) and Janne Westerlund (guitar, voice). Richard Dawson plays guitar and vocals. Henki was mixed by Antti Uusimäki and mastered by Christian Wright.

Can't wait for this.

Whoa, that sounds like a fucking good collab.

This must have been before Katapult came out. That is my favorite in equal parts because it's their most metal record to me, and it's also the one that got me into the band.

Not an especially popular choice that one, I think. Can't say I ever loved it - I prefer live versions of some of the songs.

The single from the new one is in sort of Rautatie mode which is good with me.

infektio, sunrise, & manner hit it for me

that first track on katapult is something else tho.

Katapult was one of the first handful I ever heard too, so I hold it higher than I probably should. But I dunno, I'm always rediscovering stuff in their albums that make me reevaluate my feelings constantly.

Just had a check on Discogs, including the collabs but excluding cassette-only releases I make this their...47th album? Plus a bunch of singles. And about 15-20 Pharaoh Overlord albums. Also who knows how many other related releases.

I started trying to draw a 'rock family tree' for them (and the various related artists) years ago, but it was super complex and I never got very far.

Oh man, I would love to have seen that!

I'd have loved to have managed to actually draw it, but it very much got the better of me, sadly! It was a fun idea though.

It seems to have stabilised now, but even just tracking the Circle membership in the earlier years was a head scratcher, let alone connecting up all the other acts.

Aside from a low key cassette release last year, 2017's Terminal is still the last Circle-proper album. I think Jussi has released a ton of stuff in that time, though, not to mention the Aktor, four PO albums (plus the instrumental version of PO 6.)

I'd love to see that (attempt at a) family tree!

It's been a long time since I went through my Circle collection, but I think my favorites are Andexelt, Hissi, Alotus, and Sunrise. I used to rate Katapult highly, but I listened to it tonight and tbh found it pretty annoying and half-assed in places. May just not have been in the right mood. Black Black Never Never Land used to be the song I tried introducing friends to Circle with for some reason.

surprised at that alotus. to me it was always the ploddiest one where they don't "go" or achieve lift off in any sense

I dreamed last night that I was watching Circle playing to about 20 people in an attic somewhere along the UK coast. A young, late-60s era Michael Shrieve was on drums. As Michael was about to go into his minimal snare drum solo (that I was very much looking forward to seeing) he was interrupted by Joe Biden, who told me sternly to be less rigid in my beliefs and vote for Keir Starmer. The dream concluded with me being endlessly lectured by Biden on the subject of soft-left politics as the gig ground to a halt around us.

Anyway, best Circle album? Sunrise. Although I can hardly say I've kept up.

I don't even think I can pick a single favorite. It has been relatively quiet on their front lately, so it's been easier to keep up. I've spent a ton of time with Henki, so that might be my current favorite but I'm due another discography run one of these days.

OK so i see i'm not the only person who thought this was about anthony braxton's band with chick corea. i have never heard of a finnish rock band named circle!

if you like braxton/corea/holland/altschul, you'd probably dig at least "infektio" & "golem/vesiliirto", maybe "tyrant" & "miljard" too.
circle doing judas priest breakdance music with braxton on contrabass sarussaphone would be a dream come true for me

― massaman gai, Friday, August 12, 2016 3:33 AM (six years ago) bookmarkflaglink

we will see

INFEKTIO sounds Necks-y to me

the vocals are fucking horrible though