Album Review: Circular Ruin – A Sermon in Tongues
Band: Circular Ruin
Title: A Sermon in Tongues
Label: Vendetta Records
Release date: January 30th, 2026
Country: Sweden
Format reviewed: High-Quality Digital Recording
Album Review: Circular Ruin – A Sermon in Tongues via Vendetta Records by Sílvia
Here it is: after three years of waiting since the release of their debut EP, Circular Ruin have moved a step forward and their full-length “A Sermon in Tongues” has landed, via Vendetta Records, to the delight of all extreme metal lovers.
After a mysterious intro with the instruments sounding low tuned, “The Altering Altar” kicks in, the shortest track in the album, with an overwhelming use of drums, guitars playing riffs and harmonies with that distinctive Nordic touch and a bass that definitely is there. And Oskar is spitting sinister chants with his dark and gnarly voice, something evil dwells in his throat for sure.
There are a few guest vocalists in some of the songs: Elnefial (Symptoms of Sickness), Primathor (Svederna), David Sandström (Refused), adding an extra dose of darkness to the whole.
The tone of this album is bleak, with endless sinister riffs and shifting drum timing, going from relentless fast passages to sustained mid-tempos, letting the string instruments and vocals do their work. Which, mainly, consists of leading the listener’s mind into sinister nightmares. And yes, an album accomplishing this is to love it.
The slower a song starts, the more menacing it results. At least with “Ropes to Salvation”, whose beginning puts you on alert: these low tuned guitars are the prelude for something wicked coming. Vocals sound twisted, at some points like coming from a deranged being, and the rumbling bass enhances its perversion. When drums run at full speed, they go for a frantic race with unstoppable energy. Guitars play some melodic lines in this song and it turns out great, shining through the dark musical landscape. I love this song because of the shifting tempos and the dense atmosphere created in it.
Dark is the music, as dark are the songs’ themes. The lyrics encompass a wide range of horrors: death in agony; hopelessness and decay; macabre images of killing; spilled blood and decomposition… These are twisted writings, and I enjoy imagining the depicted scenes, my mind cradled by the obscure tunes.
Ready to embrace the extreme darkness by the hand of Circular Ruin? Let yourself sink into their music and drink from the fountain of madness. 9/10
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9/10 Epic Storm
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