NINTH CIRCLE – Echo Black

Los Angeles Heavy Metal act Ninth Circle are back with their fourth album Echo Black. The band promises songs that are catchier than previous efforts with styles that vary from NWOBH to US Metal and European Metal.

Echo Black is a problematic release. While this marks the band’s fourth album you would swear it was their first. Dennis Brown is clearly a proficient and certainly above average guitar player. This is evident with his riffage on “Dance of Swords” and “Angels Share,” as well as his licks and guitar runs on “Echo Black,” “Prelude to Glory,” and “Natural High.” Richie Brooks knows how to pound the drums on Echo Black with his highlights being “Shadow of Giants” and “Riding the Storm.” Bassist Frank Forray is right there lock step with Brooks bringing in the deep bass low end.

However, the songwriting is pedestrian and amateur for a band with three albums behind them and a couple of decades of experience. While the choruses vary from track to track, a lot of the songs share similar cadence when it comes to the verses. In addition, there appears to be some effort to rhyme the same word suffix more than twice. For example, on “Tokyo Nights” the words night, alright, tonight, or some variation of “-ight” are repeated 50 times in the song. That’s not an exaggeration.

Brown’s vocals are not powerful enough to be believable in most cases. When he says “I am the lion’s roar“ on “Forever More,” you just don’t feel any “oomph” or passion behind that statement. Maybe it’s the vocal effects being used that makes Brown sound robotic at times or maybe it’s a case of this material translates better live. At times Brown’s voice mimics Geddy Lee of Rush, Michael Stipe of REM, or even “Weird Al” Yankovic. Once again with vocal effects negatively affecting that.

Ninth Circle promotes themselves as a Heavy Metal band. Looking at the cover and imagery of Echo Black it certainly steers you that way. However, if there’s such a category, you might call them Emo Metal.

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Tracklist

1. Dance of the Swords
2. The Angel’s Share
3. Echo Black
4. Tokyo Nights
5. Prelude to Glory
6. Shadow of Giants
7. Return of the Key
8. Return of the King
9. Riding the Storm
10. Then & There
11. Natural High
12. When The Sun Goes Down (Bonus Track)
13. Warrior