CIRCLE OF SILENCE – The Blackened Halo

Maybe it is because of their logo, but something in this German band’s music was quite familiar and it points back to Vicious Rumors. For more than 25 years, there has always been competition between European and USA Metal. This long-running musical battle has never been settled and no official winner was ever announced. This past decade clearly showed the Europeans have gotten to be stronger in the Classic Metal department, while their American friends went into alternate directions that hurt their overall position. While this imaginary battle is still on a roll, another German Heavy / Power Metal group, Circle Of Silence, is on its way to put Europe in front of their American counterparts, and their 3rd release is The Blackened Halo.

You can say that Circle Of Silence is a part of the new reign of Euro-bands that in a way brought the Metal world to its knees. With tight, modern productions, this type of band shows the true power of Heavy / Power Metal with ’80s influences is still too rough to tame. Some great comparisons from the ’80s include Accept, Primal Fear, Dream Evil, Mystic Prophecy, Kiuas, Kinrick … and the list goes on to include older influences such as Vicious Rumors, Seven Witches, Helstar, and also older Metallica.

Alongside the band’s great, hefty, accurate, and bone crushing production, Circle of Silence composed some powerful riffs. Whether taken from Heavy Metal, Power Metal, or even Thrash, those mighty riffs were quite good and stimulated the need to headbang more than once. Definitive chunks as the induced “21 Grams”, progressive tracks like “Redesign”, the touchy yet deadly “Until Worlds Collide”, and the destructive “The Blackened Halo”, blister with their high quality and menace. Although the leads showed there is still some work to be done on raising the quality from good to superb, the present heat from those burners did the trick. The twin axe men Tobias and Chris are two guitarists on the rise.

However, the nice fusing between Euro and USA Metal didn’t help the band to be that original with their composed riffs and rhythms. A large portion of the heavy riffs were already played in the past plenty of times. This kind of repetition might have excited, yet it didn’t leave such a unique impression in general. Furthermore, the vocal channels by Nick could have been tuned in a slightly different direction. It was easy to sense that this guy has more than he is showing and the expectancy after a few songs was that he will crack himself open with some crazy moments, however, those sadly were not so evident.

In general, Circle Of Silence maintain two different influences that both share the power of Classic Metal, yet bring it home in a modern form. This band, and others alike, proved that the “rivalry” between Euro and USA Metal is still alive and the collaboration between them both will make some great things happen in the long run.

Tracklist

1. Synthetic Sleep
2. Left To Die
3. Exception
4. 21 Grams
5. The Blackened Halo
6. Take Your Life
7. Never Forget
8. Reflections
9. Redesign
10. The End
11. Until The Worlds Collide

Band

Nick Keim – Vocals
Tobias Pfhal – Guitar
Chris  Sommerfeld – Guitar
Björn Boehm – Bass
Pit Suppinger – Drums