Time to crack the seal on some fresh doom metal. This week I’m jamming to the latest from Magic Circle, a Boston based “true” doom metal band lead by Brendan Radigan, who pulls double duty in Pagan Altar.
Departed Souls is their second LP, and follow up to 2015’s excellent Journey Blind. The group continues to indulge and refine their fusion of influences, bringing together the trippy wizardry of Black Sabbath, Pentagram, Witchfinder General, with the foggy medieval angst of the aforementioned Pagan Altar, along with grounded pragmatic songwriting that illuminates all manner of dreary fantasy escapes. The opening title track feels like a jail-broke lifer, freshly freed from the smoky confines of Vol IV, while “Valley of the Lepers” has a plodding preoccupation with the bruising biker blues of the Obsessed, and the “Nightland” helps to keep the heat on with its acrobatic guitar work and ale drown Thin Lizzy grooves. In need of a ballad to satiate your inner warrior bard? Look no further than the delicately textured “A Day Will Dawn Without Nightmares” and the muscular ecstasy of “Gone Again.”
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here
