***2013 Edition of Reaper's Favorite Albums of the Year***

[Reaper16]

14. Magic Circle – Magic Circle





This album absolutely should not work. Members from various New York/East Coast hardcore bands came together to form this side project – a band completely inspired by Black Sabbath, modern doom metal, and a splash of NWoBHM. This is my inherent bias against hardcore bands talking, but I didn’t expect them to get the song structure right. I didn’t expect the riffs to crush. I didn’t expect the pacing to be spot on. Beyond my expectations, the songs themselves surprise. “Rapture” begins with a riff stolen from Iron Maiden’s first album but gradually slows down to a Sabbath-era crawl. I mean, In Solitude tried to pull off something like this with their 2013 album, “Sister,” but they couldn’t get the energy, immediacy, or power correctly. Magic Circle, a damn side project, presumably formed for funsies, nails it.