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Album: "Disengage"
(1998) |
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Reviewed by: Darklight Klay Scott returns after a three year hiatus to bring us a new Circle Of Dust CD. His previous 1995 Circle Of Dust self-titled CD was an amazing guitar crossover heavy industrial album that really impressed me. I am equally impressed with what is offered here. Let me first point out the fact that this CD sounds almost nothing at all like his previous work. What is delivered here are some extremely energetic heavy and aggressive industrial rock songs that stick with you long after you have listened to them. Klay Scott is a very talented musician that really shows off his musical talents on this CD. Everything here is produced and polished to perfection. The music is a blend of hyper electronic programming, synths, samples, thrashy guitars and heavy drum beats. Klay's vocals are deep and clean and sing with both melody and raw rage. The songs include a lot of variety that switch from melodic moments to harsh and brutal assaults. They have catchy rhythms, beats and lyrics that you can't help but sing along to. The songs "Waste Of Time", "Refractor", "Yurasuka" and "Chasm" are easily some of the best heavy industrial songs I have ever heard before. Klay gets a little more melodic on the songs "Blind Eye" and "Mesmerized". They are a good change of pace from the heavier and more aggressive tracks. They just prove even more how diverse of a musician Klay really is. As much as I would like to keep praising this CD, I'm sorry to say that it does have its fair share of problems. First of all, there are three dark ambient instrumentals "Babylon", "Thulcondra" and "Perelandra" that are good for what they are, but are out of place on this CD. They come off sounding like filler and do take away from the overall flow of the album. The second problem that I have is with the seven remixes. The problem is that I only like two of them "Chasm (Version 2.1.0.)" and "Refractor (Version 3.2.1.)". These two remixes are simply amazing and transform the original songs into lengthy energetic electronic versions that could be great club tracks. But the other five remixes just aren't that exciting. They are noisy, experimental and basically just take up space on the CD. So I guess my main complaint here is that the good songs are mixed in with the not so good songs. This kind of prevents the CD from flowing smoothly from start to finish. However, this is a minor gripe considering the fact that the good songs here are fantastic and easily outweigh the mediocre ones. Why Klay Scott isn't extremely popular in the music industry is beyond me. I would think that if his songs were played on the radio or MTV, Circle Of Dust would be huge. I feel that Klay does indeed deserve to be very well known due to the high quality of his music. The bad news is that I heard Klay Scott is no longer going to do Circle Of Dust. "Disengage" is said to be the last Circle Of Dust CD to come out. This is a shame because Klay has already established himself with Circle Of Dust, and I personally do like the name and the logo of the band. But not to worry, Klay is still making music. He just recently did work with Criss Angel on a project called ANGELDUST. I have heard a few Angeldust songs, and they are just as cool as the songs found on this CD. From what I understand Klay is starting another solo project called CELLDWELLER. I hope he continues to make his same high quality industrial rock music with that project as well. But all of that aside, this final Circle Of Dust CD can't be missed by anyone that enjoys hard and heavy aggressive guitar thrashing industrial music. While you might not enjoy everything this CD has to offer, there are still plenty of songs here to get really excited about. Get it while you still can.
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Album: self-titled
(1995) |
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Reviewed by: Darklight This is the newest release by Circle Of Dust, and is a lot different than their previous album "Brainchild". I would have to say that this album is almost perfect in every aspect. Each and every song is extremely diverse. There is so much happening in these songs that it's incredible. They are extremely catchy, and full of emotion. They feature guitars, drums, electronics, synths, samples, and a combination of both distorted and non-distorted vocals. The songs twist and turn throughout, never allowing the listener to know what direction they're going in next. Every instrument compliments each other, and nothing is dominant. This music is constructed beautifully. Scott Albert is the talented individual behind Circle Of Dust. This guy is simply amazing. His voice is incredible, and blends perfectly with all of the music. He sings melodic at times, and then screams like a lunatic at others. He lets out emotion unlike I've ever heard before. He makes each and every song a powerful journey for the senses. You will get lost in this music. The songs found here are very dark, moody, angry, and aggressive all at the same time. This is not dance floor or mosh pit music. It's meant strictly for personal experience. This album is a must for all industrial music fans. You will not be disappointed.
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Album: "Brainchild"
(1994) |
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Reviewed by: Darklight This is hard-core aggressive guitar driven cyber music. The beats andrhythms are straight forward metal. But there is a lot of electronics, samples, and distorted vocals that definitely make this a Cyber-Core album. The music isn't very catchy, but it's far from dull. This isn't techno music for the dance floor. This is hard and fast music for the mosh pit. The electronics used here are for sound effects, and not to create the overall music. The guitars and drums are definitely up front on this album. The vocals are a mixture between distorted anger driven screaming and robotic voice enhancing. During some songs the guitars and drums will back off to allow the electronics to take center stage. But before long they'll be back for their assault. This album is pretty unique and different from anything that you have ever heard before. But it does have an edge to it similar to heavy Ministry and newer Front Line Assembly. Only go for this album if you like extremely heavy music. Because this isn't for the timid.
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