Reviews list for Circle of Dust - Disengage (1998)

The 3rd Circle of Dust album Disengage ended up being its last album for nearly two decades. The songs were written during the era of the first two albums, originally intended for release shortly after the 1995 debut re-recording came out. These songs would alternate between the dancey atmosphere of the debut's original 1992 edition and the fast aggression of Brainchild. The album suffered some delays for a few years, including recording new tracks and record label's demands. Said label Flying Tart would end up dissolving during distribution, resulting in limited copies. With that and Klayton losing his rights to much of his material, that was the end of the project.

Disengage is another excellent industrial rock/metal album! There are more electronic melodies without losing the aggression. Basically a more mainstream direction while staying underground. The songs are all solid and enjoyable. And within the blend of heaviness and melody is the usage of samples, as you would expect in any Circle of Dust album. It's time for another electronic journey...

"Waste of Time" is never a waste of time! I especially enjoy the rap-ish metal verse and its lyrics. "Refractor" is a true blast to the project's earlier past, while blending it in their more electronic direction, far ahead from what bands like Nine Inch Nails can do. "Yurasuka" has some ambient beats in conjunction with nu-ish industrial metal. I'm amazed that they can pull this off before bands like Limp Bizkit and early Linkin Park made it more popular. We actually have a few instrumentals here, starting with "Babylon" with its spine-chilling melody like when you're walking through a dark wasteland. "Chasm" is another highlight worth giving lots of praise to.

"Thulcandra" is another instrumental with a similar vibe to the first one. "Blindeye" is another great banger, complete with electronic rhythms and rap-ish vocals that all sound good. "Mesmerized" has both a heavy edge and a mainstream curve. Another one of my favorites! "Perelandra" is one more instrumental with spooky atmosphere, not too far off from a video game soundtrack. "You Are Fragile" is the first of several remixes that were meant to be in a separate EP until Flying Tart forced Klayton to have the remixes embedded to the album. It's an electronic track centered around a sampled line from "Chasm". The title track of the album wasn't in the original edition. It's a bonus dark spacey instrumental to follow up from the others.

Then comes some more remixes from the scrapped remix EP, starting with "Chasm (Version 2.1.0)", with its brilliant electronic patterns. "Refractor (Version 3.2.1)" follows, having more of an EDM-esque pace that surprisingly fits well with the vocals and lyrics. Those two remixes make great companions with each other. "Easier to Hate" is the first of two remixes by Lvl, Klayton's young brother. It's another remix of "Refractor" with more of an electro-goth sound, and there's more emphasis on sampling the verse with the titular lyric. "Hate Opened Wide" is a remix that combines those two tracks into one. It has more electronic ambience than the other remixes. "Alone to Die" is one more Lvl remix, centered around "Chasm" and again sampling the titular line. And thus the remix section is complete! "Deadly Love" is an interesting outro, a brief electronic track with Klayton singing. This version ends with him saying "You f***er", which of course was taken out in the original edition because Flying Tart is a Christian label.

Since I've already reviewed the first two albums that includes their remastered editions' bonus discs, it would make sense to do the same here. However, there are two bonus discs, both with lots of material, so I'm gonna try to speedrun through them all, starting with "Machines of Our Disgrace". Oh yeah, that's the song from their comeback album of the same name, and it's a h*lla great track resurrecting the band's earlier thrashy aggression. "Yurasuka" has been given a remix by Blue Stahli. Bret Audrey can once again add his electro-industrial sound to a Circle of Dust track and make it beautiful, really doing it justice! "Your Noise" is a demo track, an acoustic tune Klayton wrote against demands towards humanity made for the sake of popularity and technological evolution. I have a feeling he's just attacking Flying Tart for their compromising demands ("Please...shut the f*** up"). "Resist" is another demo track, somewhat reminding me of a more melodic Red Harvest. "Goodbye" is not related to the similarly titled Argyle Park and Celldweller songs, though it has similar vibes to those projects. Then the rest are some acoustic versions, instrumental versions, and remixes.

Disc 3 (the second of the two bonus discs) starts off with some demos, beginning with "Beneath the Skin" which is a demo of "Waste of Time" with a different chorus, intriguing me as much as the official version. There are also 3 demo versions of "Chasm", starting with an early demo that's just a short rough draft. "Blindeye" has a really cool demo. "Chasm" is given another later demo. It's more of a "not better enough but getting there" kind of situation. Then we have a demo version of Lvl's "Refractor" remix. And then there's the last of the "Chasm" demos, this one for "Chasm (Version 2.1.0)". Perhaps the best of that trio! But now it's time for some more of the "Dust" instrumental tracks which are cool but not worth talking about. And to wrap it all up, we have censored versions of the two acoustic songs with swearing, "Your Noise" and "Deadly Love". I say they're both a blessing and a curse. And yes, that's the version of "Deadly Love" that concluded the original edition of the album.

Whew, what a journey! The 4.5-star rating still goes to the original album with some of the most intriguing music and lyrics in industrial metal. Despite Circle of Dust's then-demise, Argyle Park would release one more album as AP2 and Klayton would start a new project, Celldweller. Still, Disengage shall not be overlooked in the industrial world!

Favorites: "Waste of Time", "Refractor", "Chasm", "Blindeye", "Mesmerized", "Chasm (Version 2.1.0)", "Refractor (Version 3.2.1)", "Hate Opened Wide", "Machines of Our Disgrace", "Yurasuka (Blue Stahli Remix)", "Goodbye", "Beneath the Skin (Waste of Time Demo)", "Blindeye (Demo)", "Chasm (Version 2.1.0) (Demo)"