Magic Circle

Although the band clearly lost some aggregate of charm between Odin and Magic Circle, there is little reason to toss this one into the fires of Ginnungagap without giving it a fair swing of the broadsword. This is still undeniably Wizard, even if some of their more appealing mannerisms have been shuffled out of rotation. Frankly, the most glaring deficiency here is the absence of Maass, who departed the band shortly after Odin to finish his schooling. This makes Magic Circle the proverbial black sheep of Wizard's discography, being the only album to feature Boland as the sole axe-slinger. He manages to carve out a respectably rollicking hunk of heavy metal marrow on his own, but his acrobatics fare far better as window dressing to Maass' armor-piercing rounds, which are in retrospect nearly as important a cog in Wizard's war machine as D'Anna's leveling roars.

Even more abnormal for the band at the time is the disposal of the thematic configuration that convinced mightily on the two albums directly preceding Magic Circle, instead opting to draw from a number of lyrical avenues to broaden (and level) the narrative appeal. In some cases this serves its intended purpose, as it is refreshing to see the band return to their poser-obliterating ways on fist-pumpers like "Call of the Wild" and "Metal." More flabbergasting is the obvious stab at Middle-Earth lore that is "Uruk-Hai," which the band actually manages to pull off rather convincingly. Those yearning for a more typical Wizard experience will be thoroughly satiated with the more mid-paced, lumbering canter of "Warriors of the Night," which mixes some cinematic elements with a crunchy verse structure and soaring chorus. This undoubtedly represents the band at their best, and it was by no mistake that a cheesy music video was filmed to go along with it.

Magic Circle is a record best taken in over two sittings, as there is a clear bifurcation in the procession that separates the more pedal-to-the-floor speedsters from those with broader scope and ambition. "The Magic Goes On" is by far the quickest number here, merging percussive speed metal with a torrential spread of double-bass that segues coherently into the one-off pseudo-ballad "Don't Say Goodbye," which appears to be an ode to the then-departed Maass. There are actually a fair amount of keyboards as well, primarily manifesting as a number of short interludes and heroic intermissions in the bloodshed. I am impressed that the band managed to pull this off in such a cogent manner, even if Boland lacks notable flair regarding his leadwork. The rhythm section is somewhat mitigated due to Maass' departure, but the lo-fi guitar tone excels on some of the more rocking numbers like the aforementioned "Call of the Wild" (probably my favorite cut overall).

It seems that many people have notable concerns regarding Magic Circle's production, but other than rather flat-sounding and triggered bass drums, I can enjoy this one well enough. It lacks the hammering, panoramic temperament of both Odin and Thor, but I sort of dig the live feel that these imbalances grant. It hurts some of the more epic, polished outings, but Wizard still excels at the gritty and sordid, two descriptors I can easily grant to Magic Circle. It obviously lacks consistency compared to what came before it, but there are still quite a few winners scattered across the battlefield.

In the end, yet another passing grade is bestowed upon Wizard, but I urge listeners to place Magic Circle back on the shelf before trying out some of their more esteemed catalogue like Head of the Deceiver and Bound by Metal. At the very least, Maass quickly returned to the fold and rounded out this underrated contingent, a contingent that was honestly still well-oiled enough to deliver without one of their most critical songwriters on this one. In many ways, this album was Boland's to win or lose, and he earned his stripes well enough for me. Decent job, guys.

What you have here is near tragic. Nice, if generic, guitar work, and great vocals, over top what has to be the worst drum production I've ever heard. This isn't Wizard's best work. But it could have been pretty good if they would have used a real drum sound. The drums sound like muted tin cans - and of course this is due to the worst triggering job in the history of metal. It's as monotonous and irratating as listening to a clock tick in a silent room. They even managed to somehow make the cymbals sound the same and mechanical.

If it wasn't for the drum sound, you'd have probably what I'd describe as the second installment of Head of the Deciever. The fruit smoothy blend of heavy, speed, and power metal are here, just like you'd expect, with Wizard's cheesiest lyrics - "drinking, rocking, fucking chicks; kick some bloody asses".

A lot of nice speedy guitar work (though some passable solos), the same wailing, with perhaps less catchy melodies c/o Sven, and the song writing is surprisingly well executed, leaving less holes in the structure (filler riffs and/or overly long riffs), but it's all being continually crapped on by the horrendous drum sound. I've heard drum machines that sound worlds better than this - and no, I am not exaggerating. It's damn near unlistenable.

Go with the early material, avoid this.

“Germany’s answer to Manowar” says a lot of people, well..maybe in their lyrics, not at all so much on the instrumental side. Wizard is a much faster version of Manowar, which now has gone back to their “steel, metal, brothers, war etc.” lyrics after writing about Northern mythology on their last album “Odin”. In my opinion lyrics like Manowar’s and many other bands are ridiculous. “Hail true metal of steel and be with me brothers” such stupidity is in the length very annoying to hear in songs with great music. Not a too big problem with Wizard though. After making two great albums (H.O.T.D & Odin) I was hoping that this album should be as good as those albums. I could throw those thoughts away, ‘cause this album isn’t on a high level as those two. Mostly, this is grounded in the awfully bad production.

The first that came to my mind when “Fire And Blood” came out from the speakers (after the short little intro “Enter The Magic Circle”) was –“Oh my god, what has happened to the production?!” as there is almost no heaviness at all in the production. I want groove in the sound on albums not any weak and farty produced ones. And I really expected the sound to be much better than this, since we’re after all in the 2000’s. So what they really have to make better to the next album is that they have to groove it up a bit in my opinion.

As stated, the album begins with a cool intro, and then directly follows up with the fast “Fire And Blood” . A typical Wizard song, fast song with a fairly catchy chorus. Could have been a great song, but sadly the production ruins it. 3rd song is the mid-paced “Call Of The Wild” which is a cool track. Music kicks and the lyrics is funny at sometimes, but really stupid sometimes as well. It has one of the best guitar solos on the album too, really nice guitar shredding by Dano Boland. Next up is the speed metal song “Death Is My Life”, it has some nice melodies and such, but generally it’s pretty lame. It has a fairly decent chorus though. 5th up is one of the weakest on the album, “On Your Knees”. A slow and boring song with a bad chorus. Nothing to care about. After that is one of the best from the album the moderately fast, “Metal. Nice intro riff & verses and a real cool chorus. The lyrics on this song is a bit corny though. Next is the song “Uruk-Hai” which has decent lyrics and cool bridge & chorus, but pretty boring verses. 8th song is the really good “Circle Of Steel” cool intro riff, verses & bridge and a catchy, yet nice chorus. Another favourite from the album. Another good one follows up, the song “Warriors Of The Night” (which they also recorded a video for). It begins with a bit epic intro and then turns into a stomping mid-paced song with cool chorus, especially when they’re singing “Feel the burning touch of Odin”. The calm part that begins at 3:19 and ends abut 4:17 is very bad. Especially when Sven ‘D Anna sings kind of falsetto (just listen when he sings “I look high up to the sky”) awful is the word ! Anyway, generally a good track. And the album closes with 3 pretty boring songs. 2 fast ones (No way out & Magic Goes On) and a generally boring ballad dedicated to their former guitarist Michael Maass), the chorus is somewhat nice though..but nothing special.

Well, it’s a somewhat inconcistent record we have here. Explodes sometimes and gets very boring in between. This is clearly a downstep from 2002’s “Odin”. In overall there’s some great songs to be found on there, and this album could have maybe been in class with “Odin” if (once again) they’ve had a better production. This is not the best power/speed metal album around, but is a OK album, bur surely nothing more. Check out the two albums that were released before this one instead. They do at least have magic, and better production.