Callenish Circle - Pitch.Black.Effects

2005 Album Award

Callenish Circle was born in 1992 when vocalist Patrick Savelkoul formed a death metal cover act. By 1994, the line-up was solid, with Savelkoul, guitarist Ronny Tijssen and drummer Gavin Harte. They began writing their own material and recorded the Lovelorn demo. Their first full-length, Drift of Empathy, was released in 1996. A mix of doom and death with some ambience, it was praised, but no record contract was in the offing. Graceful…yet Forbidding was next, and again the kind words, but it wasn’t until 2001 that Callenish Circle signed a deal with Metal Blade Records. They responded to this prize with their best, more mature, offering yet. 2002’s Flesh_Power_Dominion was among my top albums of that year. By now the group was playing full-on thrash with heavy death influences and seemed poise to grab the mantle of At the Gates. One year later, though, My Passion // Your Pain came as something of a disappointment. Sounding like outtakes from the Flesh sessions, the record still sounded huge, but broke absolutely no new ground for the band. It was as if they had stood still in their development, overly content with their formula.

Ultimately, I had simply to wait one more album. Pitch.Black.Effects delivers exactly what I wanted on the last record and more. The new album is the band’s tailor blend of thrash and death, but with a shockingly open-minded approach toward electronica, courtesy of Gail Liebling (Gail of God). Gone is bassist Rene "Rocco" Rokx, who was dumped in favor of session player Maurice Brouwers (Engine of Pain). The album was mixed with Tue Madsen (The Haunted, Illdisposed and Mnemic) at Antfarm Studios in July of 2005.

“This Day You Regret” opens with morse-code electronica before blowing up into CC’s typical pulsing thrash. And like on Flesh, the hook here is a slow, evil sweep of Pestilence/Death-inspired metal. Incredibly intense, their playing is precise in a way that harkens back to the great melodic thrash of the mid-90s. More keyboard/electronica to wed with the opening groove of “Ignorant.” Shit, this is hot. Again, they are not afraid to slow things down and let the guitars cry a bit. I can’t detect any jacking off here, it’s all business. A breath-taking break just after the 2:00 mark sees the band exploding into thrash as Savelkoul’s scream bounces between the speakers. “Take a trip down to memory lane with me/Then you’ll know what the fuck I mean,” taunts Savelkoul as they loop into oblivion. “Behind Lines” is balls-out thrash with an interesting chorus: “Your life, to me it’s aimless/Your head being dread less/You won’t leave me chainless/Thinking you are…godless.” There is more command on this then I’ve heard from them before, and they experiment, as in the moshpit riffing at the end of this track. “Schwarzes Licht” is great open-throated black metal with a bizarre pre-hook with electronica and spoken female vocals in Dutch. The band plays with equal effectiveness at either midtempo or thrash—a product of their history. This shit is disturbing and when the trippy keyboards start buzzing at the 4:00 mark I feel like someone has just dosed me without my knowledge. Wow, this is modern and exciting like the last Katatonia. I love Dieteren (or is it Tjssen’s?) solo on “Sweet Cyanide.” Understated, tasteful, melodically perfect. “Blind” is next and it’s the best song yet. Great riffing, drumming, all straight-ahead with attitude. “Blindfolded…you’re leaving me behind/To keep me from the daylight/Where I would find your intentions/Pertaining to the night.” Listen to Harte work on the kit and further amplify sections that are already heavy and evil—great. The chorus is puke death, the kind that Savelkoul did so well on Flesh (“I’M BLINDDDDD, I CRAWLLLLL…). Two words I love when they come together are ‘grandiose’ and ‘death.’ Callenish does that better than anyone I know, Omnium Gatherum included. More tasteful guitar work, too, from Tijssen and Dieteren, who patiently and gradually let this great end-riff develop and spiral. All that, and Savelkoul swallows the mic, too. I have to pick up my nuts after “Guess Again” starts because the thrash is so fast I feel like I’m caught in a mosh, or perhaps the Iraq War. Listen to the band mix the electronica in here, not too prominent, it gives color and shade only. Another superb chorus of desperation thrash and god is Savelkoul on his game. This guy is cocky, but he delivers. And his bandmates flat out groove. Great riffing to open “Self-Inflicted,” just one other thing we haven’t heard from these guys. An enlightened David Mustaine might have created this riff. Whenever they pause to let this monster breath, they remain heavy, ominous, and keep mixing in the electronica. This is another track where I love the guitars. I think Alex Lifeson could enjoy this stuff, there is a proggy open-mindedness. And enough big riffs to badly wound a grizzly (I wonder if death metal would make them flee or charge…). At the end, the fury fades and Tijssen and Dieteren are left to explore soft instrumental passages on acoustic and electric guitars. “As You Peak” comes charging out of the gates with more God Thrash and experimentation with women’s voices. Then another lights-out guitar lead with arpeggios and every other classically-influenced trick in the book. The final track is the instrumental “Pitch Black,” taking us out on a dark, somber note. At the end, the morse code is back, tapping some insane message to purgatory. The group says this is actual morse, so if anyone knows what is being said here, please write and tell me.

I didn’t hear much metal in 2005. I got engaged, bought my first house, and had a shoulder surgery. At 35 years old, that was enough to take me out of the game. But like a fish out of water, I couldn’t stay out too long and, having recently picked up Pitch.Black.Effects, I have to say it’s the best I’ve heard from 2005 along with Zero Hour's A Fragile Mind. If Callenish Circle stay this open-minded and in command and keep experimenting with sound, I will be a loyal adherent of theirs well into the future. A must for thrash/death/tech fans save Old School Purists.