Circle of Ouroborus "The Judgement Star"

Circle of Ouroborus
Star / Rise
cassette
(Northern Sky Productions, 2006)

Now that ゆらゆら帝国 have called it a day, Circle of Ouroborus just might be my favorite currently extant band. A good deal of their releases are cassettes, and, as of this writing, I have 15 of 'em. Roughly half are cassette-only, such as this one, which was released in a limited edition of 50 unnumbered copies.

Circle of Ouroborus are an interesting bunch. I first heard them on a split CD I bought for the tracks from the Dutch band Urfaust; I ended up liking the CoO stuff more, though. Their music ranges from acoustic, folky material, such as presented here, to post-punk à la Joy Division to raw black metal. Both members, Antti and Rauta, also play in a few other bands. I have several CD's and a tape by Rauta's band Vordr, and I highly recommend them. They come across to me as sort of a black metal Rudimentary Peni.