Norther - Circle Regenerated review
| Band: | Norther |
| Album: | Circle Regenerated |
| Style: | Extreme power metal |
| Release date: | April 13, 2011 |
| A review by: | Troy Killjoy |
01. Through It All
02. The Hate I Bear
03. Truth
04. Some Day
05. Break Myself Away
06. Believe
07. Falling
08. We Do Not Care
09. The Last Time
10. Closing In
11. New Beginning [Limited edition bonus]
12. Hear You Call My Name [Limited edition bonus]
13. Bimbo [Lambretta cover] [Limited edition bonus]
The first time I listened to this album I thought it was a joke, that I was being trolled by Century Media. That the copy I
This shit is supposed to be taken seriously. The problem is, I take this about as seriously as watching a one-legged drunk hobo trying to masturbate in a dark alley while I suck back a bag of Skittles.
You're waiting for the part where I tell you why it's so bad. Fine. Once you sift through the serious shit that is out-of-place piano sections; incredibly amateurish clean vocals and godawful choir-like chants; monotonous, soulless screams; and extraordinary keyboard abuse, surprise surprise: You begin to question what it is about fecal matter that you find inescapably erotic. Then you wonder how you managed to pull off listening to Circle Regenerated in its entirety even once.
Just like extreme power metal poster boys Children Of Bodom, these Finns focus primarily on the simplest of song structures. The sad thing is, they don't even do that well. Every song manages to sound sloppy in one way or another: too few ideas are presented and then those are run into the ground in a directionless suicidal free-fall. Or is free-falling a directly downward direction...? Sorry, I was almost philosophizing in a Norther review. Won't happen again.
The most difficult thing to explain about this album is what it's supposed to be or do. I mean, apparently the musicians feel they have at least a shred of dignity and take themselves seriously enough to release new material like this, so you've gotta assume it's not a parody. The overall light-hearted nature (that would be its overwhelming cheese factor) eliminates any potential aggression, while the lackadaisical riffs don't even give you any chance to headbang. For all intents and purposes... there aren't any. It just seems like a release for the sake of a release.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 5 |
| Songwriting: | 4 |
| Originality: | 4 |
| Production: | 5 |
 | Written on 18.11.2011 by I'm total pro; that's what I'm here for. |
Comments page 3 / 3
| D.a.n Posts: 42 |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 20.11.2011 at 02:51 Does the site engine support negative ratings? 
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| HardSide Posts: 381 |
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306  |
Written by HardSide on 20.11.2011 at 21:14 Worst argument ever.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374  |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 20.11.2011 at 22:37 Specially if you already told them that you actually enjoy their previous works. But still even if you didn't.. you can still write a godamn review if you want to.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 20.11.2011 at 23:48 Shit like that just makes me want to review a Manowar album to piss off all the fanboys. But I do have a shred of objectivity so I won't bother.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| HardSide Posts: 381 |
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| AngelofDeth Cyborg Raptor Posts: 1183  |
The album is as terrible as this review.
---- pewpew.. gotcha
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by HardSide on 21.11.2011 at 04:53 Let's see, I liked Norther, they helped me get further into metal, and I've been following their career ever since. I didn't like this album, and I decided to write a review about it. I really don't see this whole "if you don't like it don't review it" attitude. Apparently we should only review albums we like.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by AngelofDeth on 21.11.2011 at 05:59 I'm glad someone finally gets it.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Warman Erotic Stains Posts: 7695  |
I love Norther. The first three albums will always be very special to me. And guess what? I liked this album and they did what I expected them to do. After the first three my expectations have never been that high every time they release something, but I still give those releases a listen now and then. I can see why some despise this album. It is simple and absolutely nothing original in any sense of the word. To me though, I sometimes need simple and songs I forget right after I listened to them. Hell, the only song I can remember from this album is "Falling". But if I urge for more Norther after listening to the first three albums for the billionth time, I can definetly put on this album for half an hour.
---- 
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| Carl Berg Carl Berg Posts: 589  |
I'm sorry but hiring Aleksi wasn't such a good choice. At all. Or continuing Norther without Petri. Damn, they should have just started a new band called "Souther' and they would have gotten a better review.
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by Carl Berg on 27.11.2011 at 01:46  Great band name! Although I can't say for sure if that would effect the outcome of this review... The album would still suck.Although I probably wouldn't have checked it out, so it wouldn't have been reviewed by me at all. 
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| DevilHunter330 Posts: 10  |
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| Boxcar Willy yr a kook Posts: 9157  |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 20.11.2011 at 02:53 you go troy. *snaps fingers three times in a Z pattern*
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| Carl Berg Carl Berg Posts: 589 |
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| Marcus Doit Like Bernie Posts: 642  |
Just saw this review and unfortunately it gave me the urge to hear how bad this album actually is. Let's just say I'm currently reading an article on the architectural designs of assembly buildings in revolutionary France, and it's more interesting than this album.
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| Stunning Cactus Posts: 324  |
Out of curiosity, what prompted you to give the production work a 5? On what personal tastes or standards do you base your criticism of audio production?
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by Stunning Cactus on 19.08.2014 at 17:27 I gave the production a 5 because the album feels thin. Too much emphasis on polishing the guitars for the sake of highlighting the melodies and solos. And while I understand that's likely what they wanted, it's not what I like to hear. I prefer a more organic sound, something with power and grit. The edges have been smoothed over too much on this album. I'm not entirely sure why a bassist was given credit for appearing on this album either, unless he helped write some riffs for the guitarists or keyboardist.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| mz Posts: 4825  |
Due to sheer tiredness, I though it is a review of a Nortt record and was shocked since I knew Troy is a fan of that band. I'm not sure if I've actually checked this one but the ones I had tried from this band actually fit the description of the review.
---- Giving my ears a rest from music.
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306 |
Written by mz on 19.08.2014 at 22:00 This is basically like, a worse version (in every way) kind of album compared to their previous releases, and I didn't even like those that much to begin with. I mean they used to be able to write a decent tune here and there and they managed to make it sound somewhat heavy. It's not like they went in an opposite direction and changed their sound completely, which might have worked out for the best now that I think of it. But they decided instead to tone down everything that could be considered enjoyable about their older material and call it an album. It's really not surprising this turned out to be their last release.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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| Stunning Cactus Posts: 324 |
Written by Troy Killjoy on 19.08.2014 at 18:51 All right, I can roll with that. Because I was thinking "this sounds really clean", but now that you mention it, it is indeed almost too clean, "over-polished" perhaps. Regardless, I enjoy the album, but I can totally understand why most fans of older Norther would despise this release.
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| Danny Thomas Posts: 552  |
Written by Milena on 18.11.2011 at 21:59 I was a huge fan of dreams of endless war and mirror of madness. I haven't listened to them since petri left, and today I decided to get on metalstorm and check all of the pages of bands i used to listen to, this obviously being one of them. this is certainly better than a 3, and if it was a random band, and not a norther album, I probably would just shrug my shoulders and go meh, it's ok. but looking back at how much i used to love their first two albums, then listening to this all of the way through, I'm kind of confused on what they were aiming for. the album i dare say even has it's moments musically, but overall it doesn't have much direction. and those vocals kind of put the nail in the coffin. it's like they had an intense practice session and went "woa, that part didn't sound too shitty, let's put that on the album." i give it somewhere between a 4.4756 and a 5.4645(again there were 10-20 second sections i quite fancied) of an earthquake in my eardrums scale. oh well, things like this happen; sad day :/
---- Our children are dead. Burnt in the ruins that were left by war.
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There's only two albums on MS I've rated with a four, and both completely out of my comfort zone. If you rate something below five, then you probably shouldn't have listened to it in the first place 
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