Year: 2026
Label: Archaic Sound
Rating: 7 / 10
To your attention: the debut album of the Kharkiv band THE CIRCLE OF THE ELECT. It was created by quite experienced members of the local scene, who at this moment decided to remain anonymous (but a listener who is well acquainted with the Ukrainian scene will be able to identify the creator of the band by the email address and the characteristic symbol of a trident with a pentagram; by the way, no, it is not Roman Saenko).
THE CIRCLE OF THE ELECT is interesting for its unusual combination of themes and sound. The creator of the band adheres to the traditional blasphemous vision of Black Metal (which is quite rare in Ukraine), but THE CIRCLE OF THE ELECT sounds quite Kharkiv-like: atmospheric, epic, melodic and even professional. This is not the transcendence of DRUDKH or the progressivity of the late NOKTURNAL MORTUM, but something in the vein of KHORS, YGG or even RAVENTALE. There are no sharp corners, frenzied blast beats or rabid vocals. Everything is pretty smooth and even calm, but this is undoubtedly Black Metal. Also, THE CIRCLE OF ELECT use the keyboards very cautiously, which, again, is a rare phenomenon in Ukraine, where they like to fill the entire sound space with them (see DUB BUK, ZGARD, ELDERBLOOD, the same NOKTURNAL MORTUM and so on). TCOTE generally hardly deviate from the classic set of rock instruments, but each of them works full-time and plays its own parts, including the bass. I also noticed that there is a different vocalist singing in the first track. The sound of the album is slightly muffled, but everything is very audible.
"Kaoskarma" turned out to be a pretty pleasant record with good music and songs. There are distinctive fragments in each track, and the whole album never annoys. It is smooth and high-quality only in a positive sense. The duration of less than 27 minutes is also good for it. It feels like only the choicest riffs and solutions got into the songs, and no one planned to drag the record artificially by inserting fillers. The physical edition from Archaic Sound was released in a 4-panel digipack format without a booklet. Unfortunately, the lyrics were not printed, but by ear you can make out about 1/3 of it.
