Review: Circle - End Of Time 7"

Review: Circle - End Of Time

The hardest part of writing any essay, e-mail or pointless music blog post is always the beginning, and no band proves more puzzling to talk about then Circle. Circle are a band from Pori, Finland who throughout their prolific history have dabbled in kraut rock, ambient, avant-garde, progressive rock, art rock, hard rock, heavy metal and more. Their latest effort, End Of Time, consists of two covers from the equally obscure Jesters Of Destiny, whom you may know best from  their appearance on the Metal Blade comp "Metal Massacre 5" (Also featuring the likes of Voivod, Hellhammer, Fates Warning and Metal Church to name a few). 

But enough about the history and on with the review! Due to the fact that this is a cover, I will not dissect the song writing to much, rather point out why i prefer the Circle versions. 

The a-side to this 7" inch contains possibly a cover of Jesters Of Destiny's most 'well known' song End Of Time. End Of Time is a strange but catchy arab-eque ditty with a simple but driving beat that'll be sure to get it stuck in your head for a couple hours. Circle undoubtably improves on the original in a big way. To keep it simple, it has a better vocal performance (provided by original Jesters Of Destiny vocalist Bruce Duff), a much thicker and fullers guitar and drum tone which bring a much needed energy missing in the original. Circle even some how adds an extra bit of atmosphere to the bridge/ jam section near the end of the song which sealed the deal for me. 

The b-side, God Told Me To is easily my favourite of the two tracks. The song comes right out of the gate with a catchy and crunchy riff that immediately grabs your attention. The hypnotic pre-chorus is a perfect example of Jesters Of Destiny's dynamic song writing capabilities and the chorus is undoubtably catchy. As i previously stated with regard to the a-side, the level of production is not even comparable to the original. Rarely does a band cover a 25 year old song and add more warmth and texture to it. On top of that, the guitar riff seems to flow much nicer in the cover then the original. This goes for the guitar solo to (which i believe to have been performed by original Jesters Of Destiny guitarist Ray Violet). If End Of Time gets stuck in your head for a couple hours, God Told Me To will be stuck in your head for weeks. Take one listen and im sure you'll find yourself walking around the house humming "god told me to" over and over again. 

As you may have been able to tell from my top 5 ep/split list of 2012, i am in love with this record. I hold tremendous amounts of respect for Circle for not only paying tribute to an underrated and overlooked band, but also building upon it while maintaing its original integrity by having those who wrote the song play and sing on it. Circle have done for me what only Voivod have before and that is make me love a cover more then the original.

Score: 9 out of 10