Band: Grave Circles
Album: World Within the World
Genre: Black Metal
Country Ukraine
Label: Schattenkult Produktionen
Released: April 2nd 2025
Introduction
Following on from their 2022 EP Pestilence and Death, Ukraines Grave Circles has returned with their latest album World WIthin the World, an unexpected fury ridden gem of a release with all the best shit you’d want on an album like this.
World Within the World
Tracklist:
- Feral Instinct
- The Last of Us
- Yielding to the Embrace of the Ground
- The Die is Cast
- Antithesis
- Mournful Will Be That Day of Doom
- The Wavering Radiant
- One More Drop
Rumination
On this album, Grave Circles crafts a misery-ridden exploration into the darkest depths of humanity. The band puts the bloated corpse of mankind upon a cold slab and removes each cancer-riddled organ for the world to see.
The songs switch between the kind of world-hating, on-the-edge-of-the-cliff style of DSBM (depressive suicidal black metal) with dashes of the almost weird, post-hardcore-ish vibes of Handful of Stars-era Drudkh and elements of the evilness of symphonic acts like Nokturnal Mortum.
There’s a sincerity and anger on this album that resonates deeply when you listen to it. There are certain sections that absolutely hit you in the core when they arrive. The best way I can describe it is that it makes you want to march through the snow in winter on your way to kill something—or someone—with your bare hands. Absolutely tough as fuck.
I also have to point out that Grave Circles does something really unique in how it finds a balance between being so unique it borders on weirdness while still being steeped in pure Ukrainian black metal coldness. I think it’s easy for bands who experiment with their riff-writing to turn into a bloated, bombastic mess. This band never has that issue, though—they seem to strike the perfect balance between being forward-thinking and no-bullshit. I’m generally biased toward liking most things Ukrainian that I hear, and Grave Circles is a good example of why. World Within the World honestly just fucking rules from start to finish.
Conclusion
I had no idea who these guys were until this release but Grave Circles has delivered one of the better records of the year so far. This band deserves the same level of hype as other acts coming out of Ukraine right now and this record is definitely going to be a recurring listen for the rest of the year. Straight up fucking evil.
BMZ Score: 9 out of 10
Support them here https://gravecircles.bandcamp.com/album/world-within-the-world
Your thoughts on Grave Circles
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