Liste des groupes Death Thrash Vicious Circle (USA) The Art of Agony

This is the 2nd full length album from this thrash/death metal band from New Jersey,USA. I first heard this band on a sampler CD that Cm Distro had sent me in 2006. The track Live Long And Suffer was on that disc. I liked it, the main melody of this song reminds me of the song Victimized, by King Diamond. So I bought the disc for 8 bucks, what a cheap price. This is a very wicked album. It's one of my favorite albums, because it thrashes relentlessly and only slows its tempo occasionally for a darker musical effect. The dark and evil mood of this album is never compromised. The songs are very misanthropic with a twisted view of life. Many of the songs are about homicide. A few of them are about pain, suffering, and suicide.

The vocals by Brian Cook work perfectly for this album. He changes the tones of his screaming to accommodate the lyrical content of this album. Occasionally he may use a regular speaking voice to accentuate a darker moment on the album. In the song ,Phantom Pains, there is an interesting vocal distortion that sounds like how sounds are perceived under water.

Vinny is a very skilled guitar player. His guitar licks are very intricate, he can make his guitar whine and wail like Eddy Van Halen. There are plenty of melodic guitar hooks that sound like Dime Bag Darrels guitar style. Some of the guitar licks are more technical and sound similar to the guitar playing of Tommy Talamanca of Sadist(Italy).

The bass playing of Mel Leach is top notch. He thrashes at a fast tempo, but sometimes plays slow for a more macabre effect. The drum playing is also top notch, it sounds just as good as the drumming from bands like Megadeth or Overkill.

With such a great album, I'm surprised that there are only 2 fans listed on Spirit Of Metal. I'm also surprised at how inexpensive this album is. This website lists its availability at under 5 bucks. So I speculate that it was a lack of interviews with metal magazines and a lack of touring abroad with popular metal bands that cheapened the price. This music is similar to early Pantera or Sadist(Italy). If you're a fan of brutal death metal, do yourself a favor and buy this album. The price is a steal.