Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Circus Maximus
Label: Frontiers Records
Released: 2012
Length: 59:28
Rating: 4.5/5
Circus Maximus are a Norwegian band who pleasantly, and honestly rather unexpectedly, surprised everyone in 2005 with their debut »The 1st Chapter«, and right out of the gate they vaulted into the ranks of the big young hopes who were supposed to take over as the leading ambassadors of modern progressive metal. Just two years later came the album »Isolate« (2007), which defined the musical path of Circus Maxlmus even more sharply, with even more clearly profiled arrangements that achieve great expressive power by fusing highly melodic songwriting with compositional complexity. In December of that same year, way back in 2007, Circus Maximus came through on tour and played the little town of Ronchi dei Legionari just across the Italian border, right next to the Trieste airport. If any of you happened to catch them back then, you were treated to a top-notch show of Scandinavian musical perfectionism.
Five years have passed since then. Five solid years before the band finally got a third studio album out of its system. Needless to say, the wait was more than a worthwhile investment. »Nine« cements the position of Circus Maximus, and with this album they’ve confirmed that they still belong at the very top of the most listenable progressive metal bands. If we focus only on the Scandinavian current of progressive metal acts, we can say that Circus Maximus sit right at the peak of accessibility for lay ears, and we wouldn’t go far wrong by stretching that to the entire European progressive metal scene.
True to expectations, the album »Nine« opens with a standard theatrical start. The very first track reveals that Circus Maximus (have) learned plenty from Dream Theater. The track »Architect of Fortune« is one of the more complexly structured compositions on the new album, and the band immediately shows an exceptional feel for following a melody and holding the red thread while stringing together compact tunes, which alternate with escapades of complex instrumental transition wizardry. And of course with a measure of unpredictable twists too, though with Circus Maximus that isn’t as deep as with some other prog metal bands. Namaste (in Nepali that’s a »greeting«) opens like Rainbow’s »Gates Of Babylon« for a new age, then develops into even more guitar noise, wrings out even more atmospheric Dream Theater-style drama through a mass of distortion, since it’s one of the darkest tracks on the new album, if not in Circus Maximus’s entire career so far. That confirms the feeling that »Nine« is a more guitar-oriented album than both its predecessors, more aggressive, and especially when it comes to production, packed with guitars! The keyboards almost routinely step aside so the guitars can take over the dominant spot in the accompaniment, which wraps around the purely melodic, authoritative singing of Mikael Eriksen, with its unmistakable character.
Speaking of vocals, you can tell that Eriksen’s voice has dropped a bit and thickened. The man no longer chases expression in the highest registers, but with his expressive power he makes sure the album gets its proper dose of drama, with a constant feeling of yearning melancholy running through it. Eriksen is especially infectious in the tracks in the middle of the album. These are shorter, so the verse-chorus compactness comes through more, and with it the vocal melody that he develops and deepens so effectively. These songs are lined up one after another: »Game of Life«, »Reach Within« and »I Am«. All three are polished diamonds that give absolute priority to the development of a catchy melody, even though you can feel a progressive metal band standing right behind it. Broken transitions, sonic development of guitar soloing escapades,… In such company the keyboards are in charge of laying down atmospheric single-line embellishments that float over the massive riff backdrop and help build a gripping atmospheric hold that blasts you into a unique world of moods and impressions, a world called Circus Maximus. Of the three, the track I Am has a perfectly cut chorus in terms of melodic payoff. This song is the ideal candidate to be released as a »single«. It carries the most beautifully defined chorus melody on the album. Game Of Life is breathing dangerously down its neck in that department.
The track »Used« goes progressively wild again, with an exceptional guitar solo in the second half of the album, and The One keeps that level up right after it.
It’s true that the soloing feels like a lesson straight out of the Dream Theater school. That applies not only to the guitar solos and riffs but also to the keyboard soloing, with the occasional generous use of »Kevin Moore« era Dream Theater synths. Despite many parts that, in their sheer speed-crazed frenzy, are lifted from the big drills of the school textbooks, the instrumental playing is also blessed with a lovely seasoning of neoclassical eruptions, which directly prove that this is a European band. American prog metallers aren’t capable of pulling off anything like that so effectively. Serving it up like dessert on a plate with such stunning playing, »Bach on electric«. Burn After Reading is, in progressive terms, an exceptional landscape of Dream Theater-style mayhem, followed in the next passage by almost black metal blast-beat machine-gunning, and at the end, after a passage of vocal melody in a calmer section, the band seasons the song with a typical neoclassical insert that carries it to its finale. A Scandinavian school of guitar playing, then. The first one to promote it fervently on this planet was Yngwie.
But the winner among all the songs is surely the last progressive metal epic, called Last Goodbye. It comes with a positively minded instrumental intro. In the closing section, built on the lead motif set up there, the guitar finally steps aside completely and the keyboards flood the soundscape, and the track veers toward the findings of modern progressive rock bands. This is the song with the greatest concentration of different moods piled up in one place (in a single track). In the instrumental insert at five minutes and 12 seconds, the energy turns around completely and evokes the vibes of some American neo-prog rock groups like Flying Colors, Neal Morse solo, or Spock’s Beard. The guitar wittily strolls through a bit of mild bluesy reflection, as if Steve Morse (Dixie Dregs, Deep Purple) had grabbed the guitar neck for a moment. That insert lasts only half a minute, but it’s enough to jolt the listener wide awake. It’s full of spark precisely because it’s boldly worked into an otherwise stylistically pure Scandi prog metal language!
The arrangements in the lighter melodic parts run sensible parallels with some modern Scandinavian melodic rock bands such as W.E.T., Work Of Art, or anything that the wondrous multi-instrumentalist Magnus Karlsson touches in his many musical projects (including the Lande/Allen project). So it’s not hard to conclude that this is simply the Scandinavian principle of hunting for dominant melodies. You run into such tricks in other »scandi prog metal« bands too, like Seventh Wonder, Vindictiv, Mind’s Eye, Platitude,…
»Nine« is a great album. It carries everything we demand from the Circus Maximus name. It deepens the maturity of a band that has delivered the most contrasting album of its career, steeped in just the right dose of catchy melodic songcraft and a seasoning of progressively cut, intricately unraveled escapades. The Symphony X influence that clung to the debut »The 1st Chapter« has vanished from the sound, and »Nine« comes across as especially noisy, sharp-edged and aggressive in terms of sound production. The guitars take the lead in the mix. Anyone looking for a harmony of complexity and melodic clarity in the lead motifs should definitely check out »Nine«. If, besides Dream Theater, you also listen to other bands that put more emphasis on crafting listenability, each from its own corner of the planet: Vanden Plas, Angra, or Symphony X, then that list will quickly grow by one more band. For »Nine« I can say that it’s one of the most beautifully flowing progressive metal albums, with an exceptional balance between melodic catchiness and progressively cut acrobatics. »Nine« is a true masterpiece of progressive metal that you’ll gnaw on for a long time, and in return for the affection you show it, it will be very grateful, rewarding you for ages and filling you with strong impressions through the power of its expression.
Line-up
Mikael Eriksen − vocals
Mats Haugen − guitar
Lasse Finbråten − keyboards
Glen Cato Møllen − bass guitar
Truls Haugen − drums
Production
Mats Haugen
Track list
- Forging (1:17)
- Architect of Fortune (10:33)
- Namaste (4:10)
- Game of Life (5:11)
- Reach Within (5:08)
- I Am (4:30)
- Used (5:02)
- The One (4:09)
- Burn After Reading (9:06)
- Last Goodbye (10:21)
