Pitch Black Effects

Callenish Circle | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 10, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Metal Blade
• ASIN: B000BQ7BWI
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #230,414 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

After close to 10 years of hard labor and battles to bring their music to the masses, all of Callenish Circle’s hard work finally started to pay off when Metal Blade Records offered the band a worldwide record deal for 4 albums. The first album on Metal Blade Records (released early 2002) entitled Flesh_Power_Dominion was received massive feedback from the press; over 200 interviews were done with magazines and radio stations all over the world. After doing a Benelux-tour to promote the new album, Callenish Circle finally hit the European road in May 2002 with their Swedish label mates Amon Amarth and Vomitory. The tour, which lasted four weeks, gave the band the chance to cruise all throughout Europe and left a crushing impression on the fans. In the summer the band played the world famous Ozzfest in Holland and several other festivals. After the summer months passed the band started focussing on writing new material that would take them to a whole new level of world domination.

To celebrate their 12th birthday Callenish Circle also re-issued their complete pre-Metal Blade Records catalogue on a 2-CD titled Forbidden Empathy. The 2-CD was released in September 2004 through Dutch label Karmageddon Media (formerly Hammerheart Records) in Europe and overseas in January 2005 through Candlelight USA. The Forbidden Empathy 2-CD contains the Graceful... yet Forbidding album (1999), the Escape EP (1998), the Drift of Empathy album (1996) and the Lovelorn demo (1995) with brand new artwork from Niklas Sundin (Cabin Fever Media) and all recordings were digitally re-mastered by Berthus Westerhuis at Franky's Recording Kitchen in Holland.

After a mini-tour with Dismember the band actively started writing material for their upcoming and meanwhile 5th album titled [Pitch.Black.Effects]. Just a month before the recordings Callenish Circle decided to continue their path without bass player Rocco. For the studio recordings the band recruited (session) bass player Maurice Brouwers (Engine of Pain) and live the band will perform with Wim Vossen (ex-Mangled, Stormrider). The new album was recorded during the months of May and June at aRe U Recordings in The Netherlands with producer Gail Liebling (mastermind behind Gail of God) behind the knobs. The mix was done in July with the highly acclaimed Tue Madsen (The Haunted, Illdisposed, Mnemic) at his already legendary Antfarm Studio in Denmark. The album was mastered again by Peter Neuber at Mega Wimp Sound in Germany and, last but not least, the artwork for the new album was created by Danish art talent Mircea Gabriel Eftemie at Cadaverman Media.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Substance filled, Dutch, Melo-Death! mmm... mmm... Good., March 22, 2006

By 

Sunshine the Werewolf (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pitch Black Effects (Audio CD)

CALLENISH CIRCLE - Pitch.Black.Effect
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So you might be asking yourself, what sets Callenish Circle apart from countless other Melo-Death bands flooding the scene right now?

#1. Their Dutch - Repeat, not Scandinavian! (But seriously...)
#2. They have Substance! I mean real substance. They have a variety of industrial sounding keys, vocal effects, samples etc...

At first glance they may come across as a Dark Tranquillity clone... Though I see where the comparison fits, I can assure you this isn't the case. Though the overall sound is similar to DT's Character, they employ an even thicker industrial accent to their music.
CC may be one of the few Metal bands that have understood how effective keys and samples can be whenever they are used appropriately.
(i.e. not like the Nu-Metal keys heard on Reroute/Soundtrack era In Flames. Or the flamboyant keyboards used by Children of Bodom.)

Though this album may not be anything groundbreaking it doesn't stop me loving this CD... From start to finish this is a fantastic album. Even though the repetition of track 7, `Guess Again' does test my patience a bit the rest of the album is solid material. `Pitch.Black.Effect' may be their 5th album, but it is my first intro to the band and I can assure you I will be sampling their back catalogue very soon.

Favorite Songs: Sweet Cyanide, As You Speak and This Day You Regret.
-4.25 Stars


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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Melodic death metal is alive and well, January 22, 2006

By 

ohnjayjdp "ohnjayjdp" (Columbus, IN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pitch Black Effects (Audio CD)

"Pitch.Black.Effects" by Callenish Circle is the album that fans of melodic death metal have been waiting on for a long time. If you are one of the afore mentioned fans who yearns for the days when Soilwork and In Flames were at their creative (not commercial) peak, then I would very strongly encourage you to check out this CD. Callenish Circle are heavier than both of those bands, however their music is in the same vein. While I don't know a lot about the band, Callenish Circle had an exceptional melodic death release a few years back called "My Passion // Your Pain", but their latest clearly surpasses that one. There is an added element (I guess you could call it industrial) to the songs this time around, but I think overall the music is pretty straightforward. Like last year's Dark Tranquillity album, "Pitch.Black.Effects" starts off very strong, but unlike DT's CD, this one is strong through to the end (especially the pummeling "As You Speak"). This CD is definitely not going to appeal to all metal fans; in fact, big fans of the current metalcore movement may not appreciate what's been done here. However, in their musical genre, Callenish Circle have created a great CD that unfortunately will be heard by very few people and appreciated by even fewer.

Other melodic death metal bands that are still putting out great CDs include Dark Tranquillity and Heaven Shall Burn (who are really one of the best around). If you like melodic death and have not heard HSB, then I highly recommend that you give them a try.

(P.S. Don't get me wrong...some of the original metalcore bands are good, specifically Shadows Fall and Killswitch Engage when they had the original vocalist. However, the soulless imitators are killing what used to be pretty good music.)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shimmering Space Metal, March 29, 2006

By 

Barry Dejasu "the_otherness" (Rehoboth, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pitch Black Effects (Audio CD)

This Dutch band's new album is a real treat for industrial metal fans. Shimmering, swirling keyboard textures and rhythmically-enhancing beats and samples add whole other dimensions to jagged, chugging riffs. There are moments of powerful thrash (especially so on "Guess Again"), and some effectively dynamic screams from "vo-killist" Pat Savelkoul. There are also some terrific breakdowns into spacey, ambient keyboards and drum clashes, some effective guitar solos, spoken-word female vocals...PITCH.BLACK.EFFECTS is a mixed bacg of treats. The album fits into some sort of space between Meshuggah, later In Flames and Dark Tranquillity, and Fear Factory, making for some excellent industrial-melodic death metal. Perhaps the resulting genre is "Space Metal?" Highly recommended.