Circadian Rhythm

Stumbling across a band that makes you remember why you scour forums and blogs, wading through hours of shitty metal songs, is always a pleasant surprise. One in every 50 (or maybe every 100) bands just has that perfect balance of things in music that you really like and the minute you hear them you know you're in for hours of listening to their back catalog. Thurisaz is just that for me, and they tickle all of my special music nerd places. The only downside of listening to Circadian Rhythm is the shame of not having checked it out sooner.

Actually, that might be going a little bit too far. This is an album that's designed to appeal to a niche within metal--the small sub-segment of us that like a little syrup mixed in with the heavier tones. This community spans across many subgenres, from melodic death metal to black metal to melodeath/doom and everything in between, and where Thurisaz stand is directly in the middle of that. Sometimes I'm reminded a bit of older Katatonia's penchant for melodies that plod along and sort of just hang in the air, but the riffing is also frequently supplemented by a "sorrowful chugging" approach a la Insomnium. On top of that, the keyboards make their presence felt very often, adding a whole other layer to the music. I'm not sure what genre tag really works here, and the "Atmospheric death/black metal" tag that's been attributed to them doesn't really work for me. I suppose you could say this is like Dissection with more slower parts and keyboards patching up the difference? There are some riffs that sound bouncy and folky here and there, but this album's atmosphere isn't at all that of folk metal.

Maybe understanding Thurisaz entirely through reference to the melodic side of metal is throwing me off. Due to the more linear structure and pacing, occasional clean vocals, and just the general warmer sense of melody, this could perhaps be more comparable to prog rock in some aspects. Thurisaz is clearly a metal band at the core, mind you, but every effort is made on Circadian Rhythm to expand on the metallic core. You know, extreme metal that tries its hardest to avoid the trappings of extreme metal. Opeth and Agalloch are perhaps two of the more notorious perpetrators of this style. I find bands that take this approach are much easier to appreciate if you take them more as really heavy rock bands as opposed to really flowery extreme metal bands, and Thurisaz ends up sounding very comparable to the two bands mentioned above when you listen from beginning to end. Aside from the harsh vocals (well-done, mid-ranged black metal rasps) and the overblown songwriting, there's nothing in the way of jarring tempo shifts or tense atmospheres to really staple the fact in your head that this is a death/black metal album.

I suppose it's impossible to take one specific point of reference to approaching this album, just because the range of styles blended in here is so diverse. You tend to remember specific moments of songs as opposed to entire songs. That guitar part of the beginning of "Fading Dreams" that has what sounds like a slightly warped Red Hot Chili Peppers riff, the slow build within the chugging on the verses of "Falling", the Akerfeldt-esque cleans on "Past Perfect"...there's actually a good deal of little songwriting quirks and flourishes within the songs that will stick out, although they'll probably differ from mine depending on your taste.

Surprisingly, it all manages to remain cohesive. Normally albums that try to be as expansive and all-encompassing as this one does fall through. Perhaps the musicians lack a unified vision, or one instrument dominates at the expense of others. Thurisaz manage to alleviate this problem for the most part by giving reach instrument a role in the music that doesn't overstay its welcome. The bass makes some interesting appearances at times, they seem to know when to smoothly switch between harsh and clean vocals and the keyboards are exactly where they need to be in the mix. I can't stand most overblown, symphonic metal almost entirely due to the keyboards about 90% of the time. Cradle of Filth were always a little too immersive even on the early albums, even something like Limbonic Art is too much for me most of the time, but Circadian Rhythm got it just right--the keyboards are doing enough that they don't sound like a completely useless backdrop, but they also don't take over what is supposed to be guitar-based music.

Although Thurisaz pull off this grand, immersive approach much better than most bands in the same vein, their style does not come without its limitations. Due to just how vast everything sounds, ironically enough the album actually lacks a really strong sense of dynamics. Most of the songs, although they try a lot of different things, end up having the same feel to them. This isn't entirely a bad thing, because it is a testament to how strong the album is overall, but it is a bit exhausting to listen to all in one go. By the end of the album, the barrage of emotional climaxes throughout Circadian Rhythm leave you pretty drained by the time the album ends. I can't pick a favorite track nor a least favorite, all I can say is that no matter where I start in the album, it starts off amazing and gradually the effect wears off. Usually I can make it about for or five tracks in before my feels can't take the repeated shots to the gut anymore and I move on to something else.

Just listen in moderation, I suppose. This isn't the kind of thing you're gonna want to listen to over and over again (as I am doing for the purposes of this review), because you'll get burned out fairly quickly and the constant sappy emotion will seem cheap and contrived. I'd listen to this album for the same reasons people listen to gimmicky, story-driven power metal like Rhapsody or something: maybe you've had a bad day at work, you're grumpy and alone at home with nothing to do, so you just put on an album and let yourself be completely absorbed by the otherworldly fantasy. Circadian Rhythm has a similar effect, but when you listen to them you don't look quite as dorky as Rhapsody fans. You still look pretty dorky, but hey, not a bad deal at all!

Even if you approach the album properly, though, there's still a good chance you're going to think this is a bit soft. If you're in that little cluster of people that like bombastic, artsy music that doesn't emphasize technical wankery, this is gonna be a great listen. If you're burned out on your Opeth collection or wish they hadn't dropped the metal from their sound, this album might be a good place to turn. Perhaps if you're like me and are currently wallowing in sorrow at the notion that Agalloch broke up (or, at least at this point, is likely continuing without Dekker, Anderson and Walton), discovering this band could be a nice consolation prize. If none of the above descriptions apply to you, go back to listening to Suffocation or whatever you think "real metal" is or something.

Whether or not this kind of stuff is your thing, I would still encourage you to give Circadian Rhythm a shot nonetheless. It's very well-performed and is a standout release within its subgenre, although I wouldn't say it's without flaws or anything, but it definitely has the potential to surprise you. Circadian Rhythm is the first thing I've heard in full from this band, and they just put out a new album last year, so I'm eager to catch up on what's going on with these guys right now, and you should be eager to check this out as well.

I was really prepared to hate this, and frankly it took a little bit of listening to it before my hackles went down, but eventually I got over it and started to like it for what it is. 'Circadian Rhythm' is exactly the sort of thing I don't like in metal: turgid, a bit too ambitious and openly multifaceted in style, more than a little bit proggy- but I can't lie, the band actually goes somewhere with it. This album really sounds like a group of pretty talented musicians making a desperate bid towards making a really great album where a merely competent one would have sufficed, and it shows: it doesn't end up being great, but it is very good, and ends up being a perfect example of the sort of album most prog-minded metal bands should be shooting for.

This isn't really prog in the Dream Theater sense as much as a more general concept of 'progressive'. Thurisaz is, to some degree, a 'progressive' black/death metal band (or maybe that weird term 'dark metal' would apply here). This means that they play at a variety of tempos, use synths, have clean vocals here and there, bring out occasional esoteric folk influences, and in general sound like they're trying pretty hard to impress you with their sheer variation. It ends up sounding like a big, overwrought rock album more than a metal one a lot of the time- the exact way they go about making this 'progressive' sounds more like the way a rock band would do it than a metal band, considering that technical skill in and of itself isn't really emphasized much at all. Instead of shredding, we get songs with a whole lot of parts: blasting parts, slow, atmospheric parts, acoustic parts, and even ambient parts. Clearly there's an attempt at high art afoot.

While a comparison to Opeth in fits and starts isn't entirely without merit, this really sounds a lot more like overgrown traditional metal- think Savatage listening to later Emperor. While this has the trappings of extreme metal- occasional blasts, harsh vocals, etc.- it doesn't really feel like an extreme metal album so much as something from the '70s updated significantly. The bulk of the music on this record operates at a lurching midpace, giving the synths, vocals, and strings lots of room to move around and breathe. Most of the album is based off multiple, interplaying melodies- typically between the synths and... more synths, or sometimes the clean vocals, but the electric guitars are typically placed in a supporting role except in the most obviously metallic moments, riddled with blasts and double bass. Thurisaz is very good at instructing you as to what you're supposed to be listening to throughout the album. Like a painter guiding the viewer's eye, they emphasize one instrument, then another. It's an album full of leads with accompanying instrumentation in the background, really.

The trappings of all this might bring to mind something pretty pretentious and a little too precious for its own good- yeah, that's pretty accurate. But those things are really only problematic when the band is BAD at what they do, and the sheer professionalism of Thurisaz makes up for their lack of amateurish charm. A track like 'Fading Dreams' is an absurdly well constructed prog rock track for something that appears on an album that also includes blast beats and tremolo riffs. Oddly enough, the band never really seems uncomfortable with what they're doing- while a lot of bands of this nature tend to really sound like prog rockers who add extremity for the sake of it, Thurisaz sound pretty settled in both extreme and restrained modes. This all adds up to a very organic listening experience, and a good alternative to the more obvious and overstated prog acts out there in the metal scene. It really won't satisfy anyone looking for wild displays of virtuosic instrumentation or ostentatiously self-aware songwriting, but it's a clever album that still manages to pack good riffs and songwriting into its overtly prog construction.

I can't particularly describe a lot of this music as memorable, but it's a good ride while it lasts. 'Circadian Rhythms' is an album distinctly designed to be consumed as a whole, and it works well with the ebb and flow of distinct styles and tracks organically working through the album. It's not an extremely deep listen and it's not overtly emotionally affecting, but in sheer craftsmanship, Thurisaz have outdone themselves. Very good for prospective songwriters and musicians to listen to, and pretty good for pure listeners as well. Your money won't be wasted.

Let me start by saying this is my favorite album of 2007 (so far).

Thurisaz is hard to put into a genre. The easiest thing to say is melodic black/death metal, I guess. That's why this band is so great. They put all their influences in the correct places. The songs may start out sounding like black metal, but at the end of the song there is so much that has happened, you're almost forced to listen to it again. I wouldn't call this "complicated" music, but there are so many different styles on here that it's hard to digest at once.

The emotions displayed on this album are very sad and melancholic, and they are expressed through sheer brutality or slow, atmospheric sections. Thurisaz are apparently the masters of emotion. Each song has it's own thing that makes you want to listen again.

The musicianship is top notch. Again, this music isn't as complicated as some of the other stuff out there, but they do know how to play their instruments. The drumming is fantastic. The guitars are played and toned just right so they show some strong emotion. The keyboards add that orchestral touch to the music, which makes it feel like "battle" music almost, to me anyway. The bass locks in with the bass drum and creates the brutal atmosphere, or the slow and melancholic one. Everything on here is nearly perfect. There are two vocalists. One, is a more black metal-esque vocalist, and the other has clean vocals and deeper, almost death metal vocals. They aren't the first band to do this, but it sounds very unique and works well with the vastly changing styles shown on this release.

Nearly everything on here is perfect. I can't give it 100, because I know these guys have more to give. Their next album will be better than this one, I think. They're close, but I don't think they've shown us their absolute potential. Though, if this is their potential, I'm extremely satisfied.

And another thing. These guys are awesome live. I saw them at their first US performance ever and that's what got me into them. I hadn't heard of them otherwise. So if you're reading this review, you've already heard of Thurisaz. Now it's time to get this album.