This new band from Sanford Parker (studio guy extraordinaire and member of Chi-town psych-sludge metallers Minsk) and Bruce Lamont (Yakuza) just issued their first release through Relapse, a limited edition 12" featuring two original songs, a remix from Justin Broadrick, and a Swans cover, and it's not at all what I was expecting. Circle Of Animals is a throwback to the heavy industrial rock sound of the late 80's, something that I've been a big fan of going all the way back to the glory days of Wax Trax, Atavistic, and Invisible. Invisible War almost sounds like something that could have come out on Invisible back in the early 90's, the title track opening this as a pounding, hammering industrial rock dirge, laced with piano stabs, droning synths, metallic scrape, and harsh distorted yelling, sounding a LOT like a cross between early Swans and Land Of Rape And Honey era Ministry, definitely a big Chicago industrial rock vibe going on here, and man, does that sound great to my ears. The other original, "Lessen Human Suffering" features drummer Dave Witte and serves up a faster paced industrial metal jam, Witte serving up some pounding double bass fury, the swirling dark guitars and grim metallic riffs grinding beneath the sinister Nick Cave-esque vocals, the band lurching through chaotic industrial off-time thrash in the background, blasting off into spaced out territory and sounding like a very strange mix of Kylesa-style psych metal and crunching Wax Trax industrial. The b-side features a remix of "Invisible War" from Jesu/Godflesh mastermind Justin Broadrick, who reshapes it into a speaker-rattling quasi-dubstep industrial dirge anchored to a massive bass riff, and blasted with abrasive electronic noise and tribal rhythms, huge blurts of synth squelch and scattered breakbeats and spacey fx. The side closes with a cover of the Swans song "Fool" that actually hews pretty close to the original, albeit with more metallic crunch going on. A very interesting first offering from this new band...

Released in an edition of 550 copies and packaged in a black DJ style jacket.