I love the guitar tone and the drum sound, and the mix elevates the material. “Gone Again” is an off-kilter power ballad steeped in 60s blues and manages to impress, but closer “Hypnotized” falls a bit flat despite some interesting moments, thereby weakening the album’s overall impression.Īt a trim 45 minutes, Departed Souls is a fairly quick ride, and the production by Andy Pearce is warm, rich, and extremely old school sounding 1. It mostly works, but doesn’t quite stick. “Nightland’ is an exuberant number sounding like a proto- Iron Maiden trying to cover some unknown B-side off Sabbath’s Never Say Die. The remainder of the album is a mixed bag. It’s interesting, but feels underdone and underwhelming, with their yellow submarine never getting off the ground. The attempt at a “Planet Caravan” style hippie trippy 60s acid rock song on “A Day Will Dawn Without Nightmares” provides diversity to their approach, but it skews more Beatles than doom. Up to this point things are easy and breezy, and the riffs do much of the talking for the band. The Deep Purple worship completely overruns “Valley of the Lepers” as well, calling to mind their Machine Head era, but dialed up for more doom rock devastation. It’s part Black Sabbath, part Deep Purple with just a bit of The Obsessed, and it shows these chaps have the proper reverence for their forefathers. Followup “I’ve Found My Way to Die” is even better, shaking and shimmying with authority, carried by burly riffs and a retro rock swagger. It’s good fun, and easily digestible, though its been done to death at this point. If you have an upcoming drug test, you’d best check out, as mere contact with this stuff will cling to your DNA. That fuzzy, thick guitar tone beckons you like the siren’s call to dash yourself on the reefer madness, and when Brendan Radigan’s vocals arrive, it’s like Ozzy ascendant in a field of sweat leaf. This is fat, swinging Sabbath rock all day long, and it sounds like an escapee from Vol IV. With the opener notes of the lead off title track you’ll be transported back to the days of flared jeans, high-heeled boots and mutton chops. That combination could never be bad for your health, right? What they’re managed to do is create a fairly hard rocking dose of occult doom with a bit of a biker rock edge and just a trace of hippie acid rock. Featuring members of Sumerlands, Pagan Altar, and Doomriders, this is a bit of a super project, and on third album Departed Souls they do their best to defile all the right crypts of doom lore to arrive at something that smells fresh enough to wear about town without shame.
Magic Circle is among the pit crew delving deep into the 70s for influences, with their sound straddling the line between early Black Sabbath and rock royalty like Deep Purple. There’s no shortage of bands tunneling their way back to the past for inspiration.
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