[photos by Frank Huang]
Decibel Magazine is now streaming Departed Souls, the third album from Boston true doom outfit MAGIC CIRCLE, on the eve of the record’s release through 20 Buck Spin. The full album is streaming alongside an interview with the band on this, their most diverse and encompassing material yet.
Ending a four-year gap since their acclaimed Journey Blind LP, Boston’s MAGIC CIRCLE returns with their third LP, Departed Souls. Delivering eight epic new anthems, Departed Souls offers forty-five minutes of MAGIC CIRCLE’s soaring melodies and honed hooks. The album was recorded and engineered by Will Killingsworth at Dead Air Studios, mixed by the band’s Chris Corry, and mastered by Andy Pearce and Matt Wortham (Black Sabbath, Angel Witch, Saxon, Rory Gallagher).
Exploring the album’s expansive tones, Decibel Magazine’s interrogation with the band includes, “Departed Souls, the third LP from Boston-based trad doom practitioners MAGIC CIRCLE, is not only one of the best doom records of 2019. It’s one of the best doom records in recent memory. From the first massive, Sabbathian riffs of the title track, it’s obvious that Departed Souls is a record steeped in tradition and reverence for true doom and heavy metal. Vocalist Brendan Radigan (also a live member of Pagan Altar) deserves special mention; his powerful vocal performance throughout the entirety of Departed Souls elevates the record from good to great, matching the power and intensity of his bandmates.”
Stream MAGIC CIRCLE’s entire Departed Souls LP now only at Decibel RIGHT HERE.
20 Buck Spin will issue Departed Souls on LP, CD, cassette, and all digital platforms this Friday, March 29th. Find merch options with preorders at the label webshop HERE and via Bandcamp HERE. A must-hear for fans of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Trouble, Led Zeppelin, Rainbow, Pagan Altar, Witchfinder General, early-Soundgarden, Judas Priest, Witchcraft, and Saint Vitus.
Having recently performed a one-off concert at Hell Over Hammaburg in Germany, MAGIC CIRCLE will announce other select festival performances and shows throughout 2019. Watch for additional performances to be announced in the weeks ahead.
MAGIC CIRCLE’s self-titled debut hit the true doom scene like a revelation in 2013. Without hype or hyperbole, the band effortlessly invoked fundamental rock and roll truths putting their own stamp on early heavy metal darkness. Joining 20 Buck Spin for follow-up Journey Blind, the band again offered that unmistakable classic sound with natural unforced evolution. On their third LP, Departed Souls, MAGIC CIRCLE presents an expansive hard rock vision, adorning their signature doom with seamless psych and prog ornamentation.
Departed Souls finds MAGIC CIRCLE delving more deeply into ‘70s sounds, expanding farther outward from the primordial Iommic matter of their birth. Heavy Sabbathian riffs abound, but MAGIC CIRCLE opens up, stretches out, exposing different shades that recall the moody peaks and valleys of the classic hard rock LPs of that era. Acoustic twelve-string, tablas, and Fender Rhodes appear in lush moments of kaleidoscopic decadence woven into the fabric of the pounding elemental thunder. All the while, vocalist Brendan Radigan seals the deal as one of the premier heavy metal singers of the 21st century, delivering that Wagnerian dynamism and vigor that screams from the heavens and becomes thoroughly controlled in moments of quiet solemnity.
Though all members are busy with other projects including Innumerable Forms, Sumerlands, Devil’s Dare, Stone Dagger, Lifeless Dark, Missionary Work, Pagan Altar live, and more, when these five men come together in the MAGIC CIRCLE, the chemistry and palpable rock exhilaration reminds us that this band isn’t one destined to die with the herd.
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