(written by Islander)
“Circular Ruin is the ever-recurring end of everything once great, the endless cycle of temporary prosperity followed by death and devastation, and the inevitable demise of humanity by its own hand.”
Yes indeed, anyone with even a passing interest in human history could agree with that depiction of our past and our future, a recurring and millennia-long sequence of self-inflicted ruin in which no important lessons are ever learned and what we have to look forward to is a circling of the drain.
Apart from being a succinct encapsulation of where our species has been and where we are going, Circular Ruin is also the name of a Swedish extreme metal quintet whose debut album is about to be launched upon a helpless public.
That album, A Sermon in Tongues, follows up the band’s 2023 EP Future Graves, and it will be released by Vendetta Records on January 30th. One song from the album has already exploded, and today we’re premiering a second one — “Perisher“.
In addition to the quote at the top of this article, we’ll share another from the press materials offered on behalf of this new album:
In a world where categorization is immensely important, Circular Ruin leisurely traverse genres in the bleak landscape of extreme metal. With one foot firmly grounded in the cold musical expressions of Black Metal, the other is free to roam into the territories of Death Metal, Thrash Metal, Post-Hardcore, and whatever other genre the songs demand.
In the case of “Perisher“, Circular Ruin inflict grit-coated riffing that’s dismal and pernicious, and they back it with heavy harmonized bass lines and enormous booming beats that will rock your head.
The howling vocals are viciously cutting and imperious, and the riffing sears and soars in ways that make it vicious and haughty too. The band also bring in a vibrant, pulsating riff that adds to the track’s compulsive rhythmic punch, as well as fretwork that vividly whirls and bleakly wails in tones that gleam and pierce.
The music also becomes expansive and towering, grimly setting the stage for a gripping melodic guitar solo and further doses of those raging and ruinous vocals. But the music again also transforms into a feral, swaggering musical beast, and reprises some of the song’s most magnetic riffing.
The music is produced in a way that delivers powerful rhythmic muscle, relative clarity in the guitar-leads, scalding vocal hostility, and more than enough dirtiness to make it nasty. Melodically, the music is menacing and poisonous but also emotionally grim and darkly grand. True to one of the quotations above, it’s a genre hybrid that one might be tempted to call black ‘n’ roll, and it’s really damned infectious. See for yourselves:
Most members of Circular Ruin hail from various acts within the Swedish underground, fronted by vocalist Oskar Tornborg (Wormwood, Withershin).
Vendetta Records will release A Sermon in Tongues on digital, CD, and LP formats, and they recommend it for fans of Dissection, Craft, and Unanimated.
The album includes backup vocals by David Sandström (from Refused) on the song “The Altering Altar“, which is the brazen, punk-influenced, and again highly infectious first single released from the album — and you can (and definitely should) hear it below.
For more release info and to follow the band, check out the following links:
VENDETTA:
https://linktr.ee/vendettarecs
CIRCULAR RUIN:
https://www.instagram.com/circularruin/
https://circularruin.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/intl-pt/artist/3ql8ZyPJQiE26jfPlWEEUt