Callenish Circle - [Pitch.Black.Effects]

*=Staff's pick	This Day You Regret Ignorant* Behind Lines Schwarzes Licht Sweet Cyanide* Blind Guess Again* Self-Inflicted* As You Speak Pitch Black

Genre	Death Metal	Patrick Savelkoul	Vocals
Tracks	10	Ronny Tyssen	Guitar
Runningtime	44 Min.	Remy Dieteren	Guitar
Label	Metal Blade	Rene Rokx	Bass
Release	14 Nov. 2005	Gavin Harte	Drums
Country	Germany	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Bolt Thrower, At The Gates

The nice, but rather grey cover tells you little about how this might sound, so I decide to put the CD in my stereo. The grey slackens and I can soon put what I hear in the branch of melodic death metal in the earlier Swedish vein. Callenish Circle is a German constellation though. The front man bears the impressively German name Patrick Svavelkoul (isn't that a fitting name for a metal singer?). The story does not tell if it's his birth name or not.

How about the sound then? If you know for example In Flames, Soilwork and Amon Amarth there will be few surprises. Callenish Circle simply has a nice sense for melodies. That might not be what you want to hear as a death metal act, but it is the cold truth. Herr Svavelkoul does impressive duets with himself, growling and screaming.

What is kind of annoying is the electric sound that takes over from time to time, as in Schwartzes Licht. The songs are quite genuine creations, where nothing really falls out of the overall standard. There might be too little variation in the long run though, to be a real full-pointer. Guess Again has the most rememberable chorus. Self-Inflicted, with its slowed down Dirty Deeds-riff, lies lasting as well. But it is also suffering from the miss-fitted synth noise. Apparently these 'wacky digital sounds' is one of Callenish Circle's main features. Well, I don't appreciate it. But besides that, the record is a good one.