Magic Circle

Magic Circle

Departed Souls

20 Buck Spin

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, the band again offered that unmistakable classic sound with natural unforced evolution. On their third album, Departed Souls, they present an expansive hard rock vision, adorning their signature doom with seamless psych and prog ornamentation.  This latest album 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 they open up, stretch out, and expose different shades that recall the moody peaks and valleys of the classic hard rock albums 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 come together in the Magic Circle, the chemistry and palpable rock ‘n’ roll exhilaration reminds one that this band ain’t never gonna die with the herd.

Magic Circle

Journey Blind

20 Buck Spin

Who said anything about running out of ideas? The stubborn ones were born to linger, to nose out newer, more subtle permutations with the help from a few ragged fucks willing to practice them. Magic Circle mutt roll in heavy metal whatness, striking a balance with the pituitary culture it begat, and the tunes it jacked out. Suburban drag races. Basement bum wine scrum. Every collective thought burnt into a dirty tape dub of Mob Rules. Sabbath, especially in its later incarnations, hulks ephemerally among all openings, rests and codas. When Chris Corry’s and Dan Ducas’s guitars aren’t jelly-legging around Iommi, they’re rekindling “Neon Knights,” brandishing “Die Young” credo. Meanwhile, Q clubs the kit like a drunken Ginger Baker. Brendan Radigan stakes a big, black flag in vocal territory long occupied by Saint Vitus, Saxon, Armored Saint and Trouble. Bassist Justin DeTore alternates creepy crawl and thunder word belch, laying yoke over each tune and driving them predjudicially underground. But motherfuck simply “sounding” like these bands. Magic Circle celebrates them, and in doing so honors the form they have found. It’s heavy metal. Hit hard. Write riffs that clack along like rustbucket tanks into perpetuity. “Play” bass in ways that make you at once inseparable from every punch the drummer lands, and also ghosts every riff—working beneath, between, behind the rhythm. Sing that fucking story as every ancient did their Homer. It means something. It stands for something. Bring that to the tape.  And so Magic Circle does. Tunes...

Magic Circle

Magic Circle

Armageddon

***NOW AVAILABLE ON CASSETTE!!! Drawing from classic NWOBHM and traditional metal influences, this five piece comprised of veteran local musicians have turned out a well crafted solid as hell metal album. They've definitely done their listening homework over the years. Strong and catchy songs, heavy but not tuned down, recorded well but not overproduced, it captures the old DIY ethic of metal in the early ‘80s. The vocals have an almost Ozzy quality at times, solid as hell. We're totally stoked on this record! Members of MIND ERASER, RIVAL MOB, NO TOLERANCE, DOOMRIDERS etc.