review: Ninth Circle

Ninth Circle

Echo Black

June 26th 2020

Pure Underground Records

The melodic singing and catchy hooks, and the sound of ear-friendly songs that are reminiscent of the bygone times of when rock excited young people when they heard it on the radio, before the genres became such divisive, compartmentalized pseudo religions for metal audiences. That’s California’s Ninth Circle. Their music is vintage in spirit and reality. The sound, the songs certainly are, maybe even the equipment is! Anyway, the songs are catchy and easy on the ears, and this classic rock-based heavy metal has plenty for fans looking for something very different from the unmelodic loudness of today’s extreme-dominated scenes. The public that has ears for melodic singing, lots of catchy riffs and direct guitar solos should give this album a chance. The type of energy of the band is the excitement of the young heavy metal that, let’s say, around 1976 begins to head in a more uptempo, less bluesy, more compact style and eventually will lead to the classics of traditional, melodic, non-thrash in the 1980s.

Fans like reference points. Fine, let’s play that game. One way to understand this music is that the band chooses to maintain the sound of the young heavy metal before extreme metal reared its head. No screaming/growling, no downtuned guitars; just the classic, hard rock that is identified with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (the more melodic bands like Angel Witch, Gaskin, Praying Mantis); with Canadian bands like Rush (not the super proggy stuff) and Triumph; Heavy Load (Sweden); U.F.O., Scorpions; U.S. bands like Riot, Y&T, Sammy Hagar, Van Halen. You might notice the Thin Lizzy vibes!

The songs are memorable. With “Tokyo Nights,” for example, you might find yourself stuck on the song and will have to consciously make the choice to stop repeat listening to it, so you can continue on to the next track. Two warnings: (1) This is vintage-style. By comparison, just about all the rock that you listen to is angry and ugly. You might be surprised that this music doesn’t make you feel so angry and does not incite the ugliness of your soul. (2) The singing is more hard rock than air raid siren, glass-shattering, super high singing. Listen for yourself and decide how you feel about it.

Ninth Circle - "Riding the Storm" Official video

facebook.com/NinthCircleBand