Sunrise

"Brilliant,shockingly brilliant! Herewith we present to you what we can only say is the headbangingest record yet from our Finnish friends Circle (containing also, paradoxically, a couple of their most gentle numbers). The Circle concept is one of repetition,and while ALL their records are in fact great, one can find some of them to be a lot like another. So it's nice that this new Circle really goes out on a limb,with so much success, while totally managing to remain Circle to the core. An amazing album, making effective use of Mika's unusual/unique vocals. . . he's developed some sort of exotic (Middle Eastern? American Indian?) meets metal style, delivered in a manner as over-the-top as the most insane Italian prog of the 70's. Throw in some violin and moog and of course all the heavy metal moves, and you've got a bizarre blend of, uh, Yoko Ono, Hawkwind, Judas Priest, and of course Circle's krautrock forerunners Neu! and Can. While Sunrise is in many ways a departure for Circle, it can also be seen as an album harking back to their hard-rockin' roots." - Allan Horrocks / Aquarius Records