Circle of Ouroborus - Abrahadabra (2012)

Full Length, Kuunpalvelus
August 23rd, 2012

Genre: Black Metal/Experimental/Post-Punk
Region: Finland

Two big, highly anticipated albums hit the ground today and what am I doing? Why I'm posting another obscure record authored by the enigmatic group Circle of Ouroborus ,who I'm beginning to fall in love with. And I still haven't gotten through the majority of their discography.

It's increasingly difficult to keep up with the amount of material these guys put out there, and even more difficult to procure physical copies of it due to the high demand and limited releases. Since Eleven Fingers last year there have been 9 new records from this Finish duo (most cassette or vinyl only releases), and I only managed to get a hold of 3 of them including this one.

Abrahadabra was recorded around the same time as Eleven Fingers and The Lost Entrance of the Just so you can expect a similar murky production, clean mournful howling vocals, astral/existential/contemplative and somewhat depressing lyrics in their simple rhyme scheme, and dream-like guitar tones through listless riffs and structures. You have six tracks to get lost in here, the last one is nearly 10 minutes.

Overall this is a much slower record (especially on side two) with no hoarse black metal growls to balance out the clean style. The first side is generally more mid-paced, the cloudy blackened post-punk is still quirky yet catchy and ghostly, and a few rhythms with slightly awkward percussion.

You can hear a little of this on the opener "Conspiracy" during the hook where it speeds up, the escalating notes here giving of that ethereal vibe. "These Days And Years To Kill" has a couple moments resembling traditional black metal in the backing riffs but still not near their effort on "Armon Keitaalla".

The second side begins with a slow track "Six Hands" which reminds me of "Sigil of Suns": melancholic riffs whining like a synth with a slower rhythm behind it, the drumming picking up only briefly at points. And it continues like this with "Like Silent Meadows", swaying in a very fantasy-ish manner.

The closer as mentioned is a long one, slow with short episodes of martial drumming (much like in "Breathing Slowly") alongside the pinging cymbals. It has a a great section like 3 minutes in once the vocals drop out where both the lead and rhythms are quite beautiful (and repeats quite often). It might be my favorite track and is the most reminiscent of material on "Eleven Fingers".

While it's not as wonderful straight across the board as Eleven Fingers it is more engaging and memorable (for me at least) than The Lost Entrance of the Just. Though I've seen some people bagging the drumming on recent Circle of Ouroborus records I like it a lot. Sure it's simple and doesn't vary a whole lot (maybe a little more varied here) but it stands out making the songs more hypnotic.

I certainly recommend checking this one out if you've enjoyed their recent style. If you're interested in a copy you'll have to do some in-depth searching, but you can also head over to Fallen Empire Records and shoot them an email asking for a copy. I grabbed mine from them just before they ran out but they're trying to get more in stock for now.

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Circle of Ouroborus - The Lost Entrance of the Just (2012)

Full Length, Handmade Birds Records
February 29th, 2012

Genre: Black Metal/Experimental/Post-Punk
Region: Finland

You can always count on this Finish duo experimenting with their sound and staying busy. Recently Moonflares and Eleven Fingers were muffled hazey excursions while Armon Keitaalla switched to a more traditional black metal sound leaving the muddy atmosphere behind.

The Lost Entrance of the Just returns to the post-punk/shoegaze sound on Eleven Fingers and Moonflares. Clean mournful vocals remain dominant as does the murky ethereal mist but slightly tamed, slower. This is most evident in the first two tracks. In fact the first half of the album is more ambiance heavy with dazed and drowning rhythms and less prominent use of tremolo riffs at first. Of course they always have such elements warmly pulsing under every track coupled with a soft drumming technique to entrance you, but it's much more subtle to begin with. In tracks such as Cast in Clay and Black Hole Womb the approach is similar to the clouded sound of The Angelic Process.

Skyline Painter and Ride the Wolf are closest to Eleven Fingers in my opinion as the droning cleans mix with the raw rasps from Antti, and a strong smothered tremolo pattern wails underneath. Grittier aspects of Armon Keitaalla are just barely present in some of the later songs — and only briefly. Often overtaken and smothered by drugged out atmospherics. Toivosta Syntynyt is probably the most unique here with warbled melancholic bends standing out as the lyrics are sung in Finnish.

Overall it's another solid entry into Circle of Ouroborus' extensive library of experiments though a little less gripping than their last few releases. Still enchanting though and unlike much else out there. This album (like their last few releases) is limited to 500 on vinyl so if you want it I'd hurry up and head over to Handmade Birds Records to pick it up before it's gone forever.

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Circle of Ouroborus - Armon Keitaalla (2011)

Demo, Kuunpalvelus /Versets Noirs
October 31st, 2011

Genre: Black Metal
Region: Finland

More Circle of Ouroborus! There's a cassette rip of this floating around but this is the vinyl version that was just released by Kuunpalvelus.

Armon Keitaalla is a 14 track demo of more traditional styled black metal which Circle of Ouroborus has touched on in earlier releases in their discography. It's still strange, very lo-fi and lots of bendy riffs that have a similar unique groove found on Eleven Fingers and their Moonflares split with far less post-punk/shoegazey touches and virtually no clean vocals, while still retaining that cold, dreamy and isolated air. At times its distorted and blanketed in soft atmospheric chords and soaring leads while in others its more upbeat and bouncy, hitting a faster tempo with sharp tremolo riffs.

Highly recommended, this is some excellent material. If you didn't like the post-punk elements of Eleven Fingers then this may be far more interesting to you. This is another one that should've made it on my "best of" list. The cassette set is sold out but the vinyl was just released and is available over at Kuunpalvelus (site is temporarily down) and Versets Noirs.

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Circle of Ouroborus - Eleven Fingers (2011)

Full Length, Handmade Birds Records
August, 2011

Genre: Black Metal/Experimental/Post-Punk
Region: Finland

Been waiting on this to show up on my doorstep. This of course is the latest release from Finish two piece Circle of Ouroborus who have a tradition of creating murky, low-fi, experimental black metal/post-punk. They're kind of hard to pin down genre-wise and have quite a catalogue of releases which are all equally strange; many of which I haven't had time to get to except for a few full lengths (Tree of Knowledge, Unituli, etc.). Having said that those that I have heard I found that they can be hit or miss for me but Eleven Fingers is different in that regard as I enjoyed everything on this release and felt compelled to spin it again immediately afterward. It may be their best work yet.

If you want a good idea of what you'll get from Eleven Fingers you should check out the track Warpath. It's a difficult release to describe. The seven songs here are draped in a mystical cold haze, their sound has not changed greatly from past releases outside of being very refined here. Eleven Fingers has a very laid back, thick, melodic atmosphere while still being engaging and intense. Vocals (as always) are 90% clean but not in a traditional sense, they have a mournful droning quality complimenting well with the soft guitars and hypnotic drumming. Brief moments of harsher vocals do appear (a few passages at most) and there are no acoustic moments here as in some previous albums. Circle of Ouroborus have always had such a strange and compelling sound and this seems like the best expression of it to date.

Distinctive, entrancing and dreamy. I'm really enjoying Eleven Fingers a ton and would recommend it even if you haven't heard their past work. It really does encompass perfectly Circle of Ouroborus' unique sound while still being accessible to some degree. Fans of Have a Nice Life, Mamaleek, and Murmuure may be interested in this.

UPDATE: Links fixed. Now both CD and Vinyl rips are up! (UPDATED: 21/03/2012)

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