Magic Circle: Departed Souls (2019)

It has not been that long since I reviewed the Boston-based doom metal band Magic Circle's sophomore 2015 album Journey Blind.  I was fairly impressed with that album, finding the band's retro doom metal approach very impressive.  Unfortunately, I am just not as sold on this album.  Maybe it is a grower, but it has failed to grab me in the same way that the other album has.

The core sound of the band is still rooted in classic doom metal bands like Trouble and Pentagram.  The band though has a distinctive fuzzy, 1960's blues rock feel to their riffs.  The songs are generally a little slower-paced on this album.  I remarked in my review of the band's earlier album that my favorite songs were the ones that were a little faster-paced.  Unfortunately, there are very few such songs on this album, which kind of goes toward my general ambivalence.  The vocals are still probably the best element on the album, but there are not any songs like "The Damned Man" this time around to truly impress.

Magic Circle has also created a much more varied album this time around.  "A Day Will Dawn Without Nightmares" in particular sounds like the band has channeled Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan" and Trouble's "Porpoise Song" and filtered those songs through Indian instrumentation.  It is an interesting song, but I am not sure how much I actually like it.

I want to be clear that I do not dislike this album.  I will still be giving it more chances because Magic Circle still has great talent.  I just liked the previous album better.  A lot of the elements that I liked so much on that album are not present here.  Still, there are some definite impressive elements here too.