Review: DarkRise – Circles of Failure

Did you train your neck muscles recently? It’s time to use them, because the Swiss death metallers of DarkRise released their new album. This new album is titled Circles of Failure and was released on April the 5th via Punishing Records. It’s the successor of their 2016 album Fear, Hate & Corruption, which we also reviewed here. Circles of Failure is the already sixth full-length album by this Swiss death metal band consisting of vocalist Thibaud, guitarists Nico and Dario, bass player Wil and drummer Axel.

DarkRise immediately starts Circles of Failure at a very high pace with opener Liar Liar. Something that gets clear quite fast is that Axel really drums like a beast. Not only Liar Liar is a good example of his blasting drums, this also gets, for example, very clear in Papierkram and the ultimate train-your-neck-muscles-track of this album: Lobotomized. Something else this last mentioned track also is an good example of are Nico’s and Dario’s tight riffs, while they also regularly deliver nice roaring guitars. Speaking about the guitars of this album, there is something that of course can’t be forgotten to mention: the ripping solos such as in Next and Until Death.

Vocally, Thibaud delivers raw and hoarse vocals. For an example of this, be sure to listen to the aforementioned Until Death and Daily Zombies. His vocals sound nice and surely fit the music, but he doesn’t show much variation in his voice. However, this isn’t something that is necessary on this album.

The most variation on Circles of Failure is coming from the guitars and the drums. These are the most important on this album. DarkRise also regularly brings some variation with changes in tempo, but the pace on Circles of Failure mainly remains quite high, something that can be heard quite well in, for example, Daily Zombies. This track also shows some moments during which DarkRise handles a bit slower pace, something that remains rare on this album.

Circles of Failure became an enormously energetic album, in the way DarkRise sounds on this album as well as in how much energy this can unleash with listeners. This is something that can be heard very well in, for example, the aforementioned Lobotomized and the perfect closing track Bullshit Theories. That Bullshit Theories is such a perfect closing track is not only due to its last, big dose of energy, but also because of the course of this track, the way the vocals are dying out and it’s ripping solo at the end.

With Circles of Failure DarkRise crushes for 42 minutes and they really impress doing that. This surely is a recommended album for everybody liking death metal, no matter what kind of death metal. You are someone who prefers other styles of metal, but you can appreciate metal’s more extreme, faster and/or more brutal sides as well? In that case, at least give this album a try! You will not be disappointed!

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