Mercury Circle was formed not a long time ago from the members of such bands like Sleep Of Monsters, To/Die/For and Swallow The Sun, so in a way it can be considered as super-group. The band’s first release is EP called The Dawn Of Vitriol.
This band is a brainchild of Jaani Peuhu, Finnish musician, producer and songwriter (Before The Dawn, Lord Of The Lost, Hallatar). He also plays in Darkwave band Iconcrash and in 2019 he joined Swallow The Sun. “After I returned from touring with Hallatar I started to write new music. My plan was not to write anything too heavy. For some reason the songs I wrote were closer to Doom Metal than Dark Rock. I followed my heart and wrote an album without any preconceptions about genres, planning or second guessing what I was doing. I felt like I needed to get these songs out of my system, – tells Jaani, – When the songs were written and the demos done I started to think what I was going to do with them and whether I should form a band to perform them. I made a list of musicians I wanted to work with. I contacted them, played the demos and after asking if they were interested to join, they all said yes.” Thats how guitarists Jussi Hämäläinen (Hanging Garden) and Juppe Sutela (To/Die/For), bassist Ande Kiiski (Sleep Of Monsters) and drummer Juuso Raatikainen (Swallow The Sun) joined the band.
Mercury Circle‘s music is a melancholic blend of Dark Wave and Doom Metal, which Jaani calls “New Doom”. Keyboards and synth create the atmosphere and guitars with drums add heaviness but they are allocated unevenly. In the opening “Oil Of Vitriol” synth and samples create literally cinematographic atmosphere, allowing guitars and drums to appear only in the end of the song. In contrast, full of tragedy “The Last Fall” slow paced guitars and deep bass play the main role.
“Black Flags” and “New Dawn” are more Dark Ambient than Doom: lots of samples create a melancholic image that is exacerbates with live instruments. A tension can be felt here, somewhere deep underneath but it is not allowed to come out and this cause some feeling of ambiguity.
And the most outstanding song in The Dawn Of Vitriol is “The Beauty Of Agony”. Intro’s dismal sounds, deliberate keyboards and Jaani’s clean vocals changed with heavy riffs, reminding Paradise Lost so much. Vocals become rougher as well, taking music fully to Doom Metal territory.
Nevertheless, I can’t call The Dawn Of Vitriol solid. “Oil Of Vitriol” as an intro would me much better on a long EP but here it sounds too long and protracted. The feeling of ambiguity, which I talked earlier, also isn’t benefit for this release. However, as I understand it, Mercury Circle working hard on their debut longplay now, which is planned to be released in late 2020. So from this point of view, The Dawn Of Vitriol is some kind of next LP trailer and soon we’ll got something unusual and interesting.
The Dawn Of Vitriol will be released on August, 14th via Noble Demon.
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