CIRCLE OF SILENCE — The Blackened Halo (review)

CIRCLE OF SILENCE — The Blackened Halo album cover Album · 2011 · Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Time Signature
Take your life...

Genre: power metal with balls

Now this is power metal the way I like it: it kicks ass! While still melodic and with epic sounding choruses, there is no trace of cheesiness here! One reason could be that Circle of Silence draw a lot on thrash/speed metal.

The album is well balanced in terms of riffage, and most tracks contain uptempo thrash and speed riffs, heavy riffs, groovy riffs and flowing power chord riffs. In addition there are epic guitar harmonies to be found on this album and plenty of melody (there even seem to be some melodeath influences, too). Adhering to power metal conventions, the choruses are very catchy, melodic and epic sounding, but vocalist Nick Kaim's more rock-ish voice (which, sounds like a mixture of Rock 'n' Rolf, Blaze Bayley and, I swear, my dad[!]), adds a dimension of rock 'n' roll rawness. While the pseudo-operatic aspect - which a lot of power metal fans like - is absent, Kaim's singing style adds an extra couple of pounds to the lead boot with which Circle of Silence will be kicking your ass.

"The Blackened Halo" contains a bunch of solid, strong and hardrocking power metal tunes, where the emphasis is on power and ass-kicking, rather than grandiosity - in other words, it's power metal with balls.
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