An oldie but goodie from the vaults of Profound Lore that I just now found out about, Forcing The Astral is the first album from the enigmatic

blackthrash cult Arctic Circle who hail from the frozen tundras of Manitoba. This shit is right up my alley - handpasted cover with a cutout logo taped over

a murky photo of a dark twilight sky, the booklet interior depicting the band playing live, the words "dedicated to piggy and voivod" printed across the top.

The music, a twisted hybrid of black metal and early Voivod, but somehow damaged and "off". The guitars are slippery blackened lashings of dissonant riffage,

the drums a chaotic clot of sloppy blastbeats and frantic fills that borders on the inept, but it is this stumbling chaoticness that makes this sound even

more ferocious and demented. The vocals are blackened raspy shrieks, gargling blood and bile rising up in his throat. I can hear the Voivod influence in the

contorted thrash beats and jagged riffs and the feeling like their songs are constantly slipping out of equilibrium, as if the members of Arctic Circle have

been subsisting exclusively on a diet of Killing Technology, blotter acid, Alberta Premium, and early Norwegian black metal demos for the past few

years. Which they very might well have been. They also incorporate some very cool, very textural feedback ambience in a couple of spots on the album that

actually smacks of the swirling feedback textures of My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, and also brief, haunting bits of classical guitar strum, all of

which contributes to the strange, alien aura that encirles the album. Sadly, this is the only album that the band would release, as it looks like they just

recently disbanded, but it's a terrific dose of blackened outsider thrash that should be checked out by seekers of the warped. The label told us that it's

also almost out of print, so heads up - we've got some of the last copies available.