Mystic Circle - The Great Beast (2001)

Mystic Circle has long been a band so invested in the law of black metal averages that it's no wonder they made so little impact. The Germans are by no means bad musicians, not even bad composers, but they just hit at a time in which the Scandinavian acts meddling in this sort of melodic and symphonic black metal were literally exploding across the map, and though this group kept churning out numerous releases, they just never garnered the same level of excitement beyond deep-diving BM fans who were snatching up everything in the genre. The Great Beast isn't quite as flagrant or interesting as Emperor's first three discs, or even as pompous and potent as the Dimmu Borgir catalogue of the 90s, but honestly it's one of the better Mystic Circle records and those who are really into the current wave of symphonic 90s black metal throwbacks might actually enjoy going back to this authentic, also-ran article.

The band is hardly sinister-enough sounding to really do their Satanic theme justice here, but I do like the bombastic swell of the mid-paced, roiling black metal against the near-constant orchestration which calls to mind Gothic castles and haunted landscapes. The riffing is quite steady, often with a thrashing facade to its structure, but very often the rhythm guitars feel like they're afraid to strike out on their own, but rather they support the ethereal sweep and strings. That said, there are plenty of leads and melodies that show the band hasn't entirely thrown out the guitar as mere support, and it's rather a well-rounded recording, because the symphonic are elegant and really immerse me into the occult escapism. The vocals are a fairly monotonous rasped guttural, a little deeper than some of their black metal peers, but they fit in well, and the rhythm section is more than capable, making The Great Beast an extremely well-rounded effort with a nice production that sounds clean without becoming neutered through over-polish.

There are lots of licks here that sound like a IX: Equilibrium-lite or a less dense Spiritual Black Dimensions, but by no means does it fall down to cheap impersonation, this was always a band that wanted to take that earlier symphonic BM style and run with it. While The Great Beast doesn't manifest the same personality as those comparisons/influences, it's a pretty good listen that only suffers from a slightly monotonous pacing, since this isn't a band prone to blasting off endlessly, and it might have benefited from a few more such indulgences. But everything is tasteful, from the spectral female support vocal to the endless nightscape of orchestration that is really going to sit well with the more Gothic-oriented black metal advocate. Definitely one of their better albums, along with its follow-up Damien; fits the bill when I'm in the mood for something that sounds equally graceful and aggressive, even if it lacks much novelty.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

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Mystic Circle - Damien (2002)

Mystic Circle had a fairly substantial career, starting in 1992, as one of Germany's earlier black metal acts, and dropping a number of albums on fairly visible labels like Last Episode, Massacre and eventually Dockyard 1 for their swan song. Through this period, their progress ran parallel to the rise of black metal to its mid-90s popularity, but they were often critiqued of having a lot of vapid and unmemorable records that were lost in the shuffle of the genre's explosion and subsequent over-saturation during that era. That said, as you'll hear on this or a number of their other albums, it was not for lack of trying, because these guys hit fairly hard and maintain a level of consistency that suffers only through its lack of any real distinction; nothing that really stood out against their peers from the Scandinavian countries; nothing unique like what you'd hear from the Greeks, Czechs, French, etc.

Damien, it should be said, is one of their stronger, more intense efforts, and like on a number of their other albums, they're quite capable of grabbing a concept from either horror or the occult and then committing to painting it into a tempestuous landscape. This record features a lot of traits which you would expect from any album celebrating our favorite Satanic love-child, from the organs and synths that lend it a sacrilegious shade, to some evil, thundering black metal which makes you feel as if you're being torn apart by demon-driven attack dogs. Mystic Circle were a band often heralded as a Teutonic alternative to a Cradle of Filth or Dimmu Borgir, and this comparison does hold for this particular album, which threads a lot of leads and keys in with its rhythm guitar riffing, and a heavily symphonic structure and bombast, though they don't layer that on too thick, and permit the intensity of the blasting, chugging and chord patterns control the tempo, which ultimately gives this disc a slightly different feel than those more popular acts.

This album really has a pummeling, forceful low end to it created by the grimy tone of the rhythm guitar, which seems to hone in on the bottom strings rather than the cold, razor-tinted chords that thrive among the many traditional black metal acts. It's almost like a death metal battery at points, but glazed over with the snarled vocals, thickly embedded synthesizers and slightly audible spurts of shredding guitars that give it a nice, frantic effect. A great example of this is "God is Dead, Satan Arise" which beat me to a pulp, even if it doesn't escalate into anything truly unforgettable. There is a slight monotony to the album in that so much of it seems to consist of the same, tirelessly thundering pace with only small variations in the note pickings, synth lines and vocal patterns, but when it gels together it really is something you can feel in your gut. A more visceral and brutal aesthetic than you might expect from the climbing, almost operatic evil of The Omen itself, but lyrically this album is more of a direct invocation to some Satanic apocalypse, and uses the film as an inspiration towards that end rather than a strict narrative outline.

The intro and interlude pieces are brooding, and lovingly cheesy, with deeper string sounds and then flurries of chiming dissonance. They merge pretty well with the bulkier disposition of the guitars. I doubt there are even a half dozen riffs throughout the album that stick to my memory, and some are painfully generic and predictable, but many others are at least smooth and sinister enough that they are engaging for the ears to follow. It's a textbook 'solid' sort of album, which I can still listen through 15 years later and enjoy to an extent, but would rarely choose it over those examples of its genre which I find preferably inspired or original. If anything, it's evidence enough that these Germans could perform, and in better times might have spread greater ripples were there just not so much competition overshadowing them. A moot point, now that they've been broken up for nearly a decade, but in some alternate universe I wouldn't be surprised to see Mystic Circle clinging on to some esteemed veteran status, having survived the backlash against the more mainstream side of the black metal spectrum and garnered respect from even the lowliest heckling cellar trolls.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (even now he's in the world)

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