Circle of Dead Children – Human Harvest
I have mixed feelings about Circle of Dead Children. While they do a good job of carving out a niche for themselves in the grind scene, and have a nice diverse range of influences and a decent vocalist, in the end they just don’t really do it for me. Human Harvest has a nice, clear but not sterile production courtesy of Today is the Day’s Steve Austin, and the tones, guitar in particular, somewhat resemble that of his own band. It’s hard to consider Circle of Dead Children as anything other than a grind band, although they do have subtle elements of “death, crust, doom thrash, hardcore, black and noise” (that’s what their bio says, and I can’t argue). In their synthesis of styles and multifaceted vocal attack they sometimes resemble Colorado hydrogrinders Cephalic Carnage, but nowhere near as progressive or “wacky” sounding. This is the third album from these Pittsburgh diehards, and the first to feature this bass guitar-less lineup. The riffing and structures are actually pretty creative for this sort of band, and I’m thinking that this album might grow on me after a while. However, since the vocals are not that appealing and my grind listening is fairly limited, I’m not sure it will get the chance. I will say though, that Circle of Dead Children really have their moments, and they really sound like they “mean it.” There are times during Human Harvest where they truly capture their malevolent musical intentions well, but those times are too far between to keep me listening. – Aaron J. Klamer
MARTYR MUSIC GROUP
Worm Gear 