Bottomless Vales and Boundless Floods

I remember feeling excited when I first heard about Lotus Circle, a Greek band who apparently like to shake things up and mix genres. According to Metal Archives, Lotus Circle blend black, doom and drone together. Considering my main tastes lie in these three genres, I’m sure you can understand why I was eagerly anticipating listening to the Lotus Circle debut, ‘Bottomless Vales and Boundless Floods’. Having listened to the record now, the title seems more than apt in describing the bottomless atmospheres and boundless soundscapes. This appears to be the only known recording from the Greek outfit and no one seems sure who is behind the music. The information on the Metal Archives page is about as empty as the musical value of this record.

Having listened to a fair amount of black, doom and drone in my time, I really cannot understand the purpose behind this outfit. It seems more like a mellowed out version of drone mixed with dark ambient music. I don’t particularly understand the black or doom tag for this Greek atrocity, but considering how closely related all the genres are, I’ll let that slide and press on. What to touch upon first? Well, to be honest, there isn’t an awful lot of content on this record. Given the amount of excitement I held at the beginning of this record, the fall from grace was long and hard. Lotus Circle don’t seem to comprise of anything other than a guitarist and a keyboardist. That’s all there really is the to music. This Greek outfit appear to want to take the dark and dreary dark ambient soundscapes and mesh it together with a bold mix of distorted drone. However, the outcome isn’t as glorious as it may sound. The production does nothing to help the situation either. The static sound is terrible for putting across the so-called dark and decomposed atmospheres. It’s the kind of production that sucks the life out of the only instruments on offer. It does nothing to make the soundscapes any more appealing than they are, which isn’t very appealing to begin with anyway.

Each song reminds untitled and rightfully so. Songs like these don’t deserve names. Negatives are much easier to find than positives so I’m going to have a hard time picking out anything one might enjoy from this awful record. ‘Bottomless Vales and Boundless Floods’ does contain sparse moments of atmospheric glory. The second untitled song, in particular, shows brief moments that could be considered positive. Distorted leads that portray a dark, dense and rather claustrophobic sound. However, there is only so much one repetitive instrument and rather muted keyboards can do. Instead of ‘scaring’, which is what I imagine this record is meant to do, it merely bores into submission. I feel no depth of emotion behind the monotonous and repetitive styling of this band. At times, Lotus Circle, especially given the unusual shrieking vocals which sound animalistic at times, remind me of Amaka Hahina, the French Les Legions Noire member. As much as I didn’t mind Amaka Hahina for a one-time-only listen, I cannot bare this. Amaka Hahina at least contained some mildly interesting soundscapes and even though I’m used to repetitive music, this is a let down on dramatic proportions.

Lotus Circle are one of those drone acts bordering on the ridiculous. A simplistic sound which is meant to, I assume, depict the negativity of life in all it’s glory. However, we’re simply left with a snooze fest and a bad one at that. I suppose if you have a bad case of insomnia, this record would definitely be for you because it’s unbelievably boring. Lacking in variation is fine once you’re talented enough to showcase your ideas or lyrics, or even both, with minimalist visions, but Lotus Circle are not talented enough to do that. The sheer lack of emotional depth, the poor song writing and tedious nature of this record make it one of the worst I’ve ever had the misfortune of hearing. Steer clear.