With the genre of industrial noise moving beyond the silliness of bands like The Art of Noise and experimenting more with music beyond total dance/house jive, the doors have been opened to hybrid all genres into this approach to music. Bands like Nine Inch Nails and Ministry have moved far ahead into this area, mixing rockin' riffs and danceable grooves with intense sampling. Circle of Dust is a credible representation of this whole approach--and it's much more akin to a metal/thrash or hardcore vibe than the more keyboard-driven sounds of Dietiphobia or Dance House Children. "Dissolved" is a good example of taking a good crunchin' riff that would move an entire audience to headbanging and moshing and exploding it into the computer age. If you listen to this album at super low volumes, you may not sense the power beneath the samples and keyboard effects. This stuff will move if your volume knob lets it! "Night Fall" features a very cool vocal delivery that reminds this reviewer of The Awful Truth. Songs like "Twisted Reality" have a synthesized breakneck thrashin' bridge, but a tune like "Rational Lies" turns into more of the traditional industrial vibe and lacks the heaviness of metal. "Demoralize" has another hypnotic hook, like something Ozzy would do. Lyrically, Circle of Dust brainchild Scott Albert has done a swell job at speaking the language of the hopeless, agnostic and depressed with a message of redemption. In "Dissolved," he discusses the passage of time and the slow erosion of all that is not truth. One line that stands out here is: "There exists no dream worth chasing if it cannot satisfy/ There exists no God worth serving if He cannot hear your cry." Praise God He does hear our cries, and praise God for cutting edge, maniacal music like Circle of Dust.
Other coverage for this album
Syndicate Nov/Dec 1992Reviewed by Dan MacIntoshWith these four new releases to review, it would appear that Christian music has entered the industrial revolution. Industrial music is now all the rage in alternative circles, and I'm happier than James Brown to see Christians in the ring so soon. Industrial music has changed a bit since I first saw Test Department banging hammers and "playing" drills back in the mid-eighties. With the pop…Similar sounding releases
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