Way back when social media was still in its infancy you would often have to join a forum to discuss anything music related and it was on one of these forums that a discussion started about what it was that prompted a person to check out a new release by an unknown band/artiste prior to actually hearing said release. There were various answers but the one that stuck in Desert Psychlist's mind, and we have since adopted for our own searches, was that if a releases artwork featured a muscle car or was predominantly purple and black then it was worth checking out. It was by using this method that we discovered Silent Circle and their excellent debut EP "Bottomless Creek", ok its artwork may not feature a muscle car but it does sport the colours purple and black and it IS worth checking out!
They have just released their debut EP "Bottomless Creek" via Bandcamp and have a few photos posted on their Instagram page but sadly that is the extent of Desert Psychlist's knowledge regarding Finnish atmospheric doom outfit Silent Circle. No matter though as its the music that matters and these guys jam some pretty impressive grooves as the EP's opening song "Remains" will exemplify. Post -metal guitar textures introduce "Remains" accompanied by tribalistic drumming before the rest of the band join in and things take on a more low slow and heavy stoner doom dynamic, at this point you may be expecting vocals to enter that sit at the more guttural end of the vocal spectrum but what you actually get are lilting female tones that possess a floating quality, a perfect marriage of ethereality and heaviness. Next song "Beyond Our Age" does not muck about with pretty intros but instead crunches straight into a the songs slow and doomic main groove only upping the tempo of that groove to a more proto-paced tempo at the songs midway mark, the songs lilting vocals matching those dynamics by being mournful and longing in the songs slower passages and swooning and swaying in its faster middle section. Last number "Sunken" boasts a groove that sits somewhere between traditional doom and occult rock and features ascending/descending vocal melodies and harmonies that despite the heaviness they are surrounded by give the song a feeling of spectral airiness.
Arguments rage over what is considered doom and what is considered occult rock and you will not find any answers to that question here, what we can say though is that if the music Silent Circle present to us with "Bottomless Creek" is what you would consider "occult rock" then it is damn fine occult rock, if on the other hand you want to place what Silent Circle do musically in the "doom" box then it is also damn fine doom.
Check it out ....
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