Band: Circle of the Weak

Album: Psaumes / L’encorché

Album Year: 2006

Label: Occultum Productions

Genre(s): Dark Ambient/Death Industrial

Band Website: http://www.abysslandscapes.tk/

Rating: 7.5/10

The now defunct French project Circle of the Weak, made quite an impression on me before undergoing a name/direction change. This debut double cd release gives us a fair taste of what to expect from the artist now known as Sedna. Firstly, the packaging is quite impressive, with both cds housed in clear jewel cases and skull-like artwork printed on clear plastic; the imagery does well to represent the sounds. Both albums compliment each other in design and sound and provide for a very deep and very dark listening experience. This is true ambient darkness.

Psaumes is definitely the darker of the two albums. Growls and screams layered over deep breaths of abyssic creations. Synthetic drones piped through an industrial death factory. Atonal soundscapes. Distorted waves of sound carry deep into trance inducing nightmarish introspection.

L’encorché starts off with some incredibly deep rumbling drones and pretty much maintains a consistent occupation in the low-end throughout the album’s entirety. The low rumbles gradually change in pitch as the tone morphs throughout each track. Occasionally we are greeted with some interesting samples of a man screaming in pain or Gregorian chanting and sometimes things are pushed to the extreme with some nasty distorted reverb and power electronics.

The albums as a whole provide for an interesting adventure but I found the monotony of some tracks to be quite tedious. Ideas were always interesting but at times they feel exploited. A simple shortening of length would have done these problematic areas wonders. There is a tendency for tracks to have inconsistent levels which I also found distracting. Yet with all of these issues aside, there lies some unadulterated disturbing and adventurous dark ambient.

I am always a fan of debut albums in this genre because they tend to show the unrestrained experimental side of the artist… I’d even go as far as saying that debut albums have a propensity of being the most honest in any single body of work and this 2cd set is no different. It is sad that the Circle of the Weak project has been put to rest, but it will be very interesting to see where Sedna takes us, especially if it’s anything like Psaumes & L’encorché.

- Jason