Vicious Circle - The Art Of Agony
Crash Music
Technical Death Metal
12 songs (44:54)
Release year: 2006
Vicious Circle, Crash Music
Reviewed by Kayla

Death metal is a genre well-suited to experimentation. The basic brutality is easy to manipulate into something else; it takes infusions of melody, aspects of other genres and technical showmanship well. In the latter case, it’s easy to play with song and riff structure, while still keeping true to the brutal heart of it. This is what Vicious Circle is doing, throwing so many riff changes at the listener that you might think you’re listening to a new prog album, until the sheer death metal intensity hammering at your skull reminds you otherwise.

Every song on The Art Of Agony, the New Jersey quartet’s first album with their current lineup, has its own personality, but one that is clearly suffering from schizophrenia or dissociative identity disorder. The opener, Dead Scent, starts off with a crashing riff almost grinding in its simplicity, which is quickly replaced by one slower, more deliberate and almost noodly. The lower crunchiness soon returns, followed by a slightly mutated reprise of the same deliberate riff. Then the song hits the minute-and-a-half mark. This sets the pattern for the rest of the songs; riffs constantly change, but the transitions work well, only jarring enough to give the song a dark edge that demands proper attention.

The guitar tone changes almost as often as the riffs, with the crunchier, more growling tone to go with the faster, grindier riffs, and a clear, almost mechanical tone for the more deliberate ones. The deliberate riffs tend to be more obviously dynamic than the crunchier ones, rising above the rest of the song.

The vocals are as varied as the riffing; vocalist Darrell Rapp uses four separate styles, ranging from a deep bottom-of-the-diaphragm grunt to a high back-of-the-throat growl that sounds like the bastard child of a death growl and a black metal croak. The middle-range vocals are often layered, mirroring the growling riffs. The drumming, too, mutates often, following the lead of the rest of the song. While technically adept, it sometimes has a hollowness of tone that strikes a jarring note against the guitar and bass.

While there is no want of innovation, a few songs especially stand out. As is to be expected, there is little melody to be found here; I Remain In Filth, while harboring just as many riff changes as the rest of the songs, has a more even flow, and the most noticeable riff is itself the most melodic on the album. It fits well into the overall very technically heavy album; since every song is unique in its own right, it doesn’t feel out of place. Phantom Rains is the most progressive, with a few industrial distortion effects applied.

Vicious Circle have been doing this a long time; their discography lists eight albums since 1989, though The Art Of Agony is only one of two being released by a label. Regardless of distribution, these guys have honed their craft, and it shows.

Killing Songs :
Lord Of Shit, I Remain In Filth, Phantom Rains
Kayla quoted 79 / 100
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