01.The Puzzle
02.Tempest
03.The Greatest Lie
04.A Missing Star
05.The Sky Has Spoken
06.Closed Eyes
07.Grief
Joe Ashwin (Vocals/Guitar)
James Pearce (Bass)
Tom Skelton (Guitar)
Sam Hill (Drums)
Nick Young (Keyboards)
Brighton based band who began life In 2004 as “Obsidian”. This consisted of current members Joe Ashwin, James Pearce and Sam Hill, with Tom Skelton joining in 2005 to complete the current lineup. Stone Circle (then Obsidian) experimented with many styles within rock and metal, taking influences from bands such as Opeth, Amorphis and Katatonia. They began creating a dark progressive sound of their own encompassing many moods from somber, beautiful acoustic passages to aggressive riff driven sections bringing a death metal edge to the music. Something they have continued to progress at to this day.
'The Puzzle' is a stunning opening song full of intelligent black metal influences (especially vocally) superb drumming and a highly evocative blend of instrumentation.
The next track 'Tempest' is a more melodic affair with sweeping guitars and catchy riffs, even when the songs gets heavier the mood remains easy on the ear.
There is a nice Led Zeppelin/Pink Floyd feel to 'The Greatest Lie' musically but with a great death/black metal vocal and seriously cool lyrics: "The greatest poison the world has ever seen, promoting sickness of mind", just love this song!
The acoustic passage in 'A missing star' just has to be heard at full volume, it is just perfection and sits perfectley against the full on metal onslaught which surrounds it.
'The sky has spoken' is a screaming metal headbanging epic, their trademark melodic breakdowns allowing you time to catch your breath and the stunning guitar solo towards the end demands your upmost attention.
Dave Gilmour styled guitarwork punctuates the albums melodic masterpiece 'Closed eyes', a truley beautiful song.
We end with 'Grief', a song that seems to reflect all their styles from jazzy passages to the fringes of extreme metal and towards the end with an avant-garde synth distortion.
This is nothing short of brilliant, the band have matured to a very high professional standard and created real music that challenges the listener and draws them into an exceptional aural journey.
STU
Rating 10/10
For fans of : Opeth, Amorphis, Celtic Frost, Satyricon
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