MAGIC CIRCLE Departed Souls [CD]

Jewel case CD.

Magic Circle’s self-titled debut hit the true doom scene like a revelation in 2013. Without hype or hyperbole the band effortlessly invoked fundamental rock n roll truths putting their own stamp on early Heavy Metal darkness. Joining 20 Buck Spin for follow-up ‘Journey Blind’, Magic Circle again offered that unmistakable classic sound with natural unforced evolution. On their third LP, ‘Departed Souls’, Magic Circle present an expansive hard rock vision, adorning their signature Doom with seamless psych and prog ornamentation.

‘Departed Souls’ reveals a Magic Circle delving more deeply into ‘70s sounds, expanding farther outward from the primordial Iommic matter of their birth. Heavy Sabbathian riffs abound, but Magic Circle opens up, stretches out, exposing different shades that recall the moody peaks and valleys of the classic hard rock LPs of that era. Acoustic 12-string, tablas and Fender Rhodes appear in lush moments of kaleidoscopic decadence woven into the fabric of the pounding elemental thunder. All the while vocalist Brendan Radigan seals the deal as one of the premier heavy metal singers of the 21st century, deliverin’ that Wagnerian dynamism and vigor that screams from the heavens and becomes thoroughly controlled in moments of quiet solemnity.

Though all members are busy with other projects and other lives when these five men come together in the Magic Circle, the chemistry and palpable rock n roll exhilaration reminds us that this band ain’t never gonna die with the herd.