Review by Daniel for Vicious Circle (AUS) - Hope and Wait (1987)

My recent explorations of the earliest roots of the Australian extreme metal scene have seen me spending far more time with Melbourne hardcore punk outfit Vicious Circle than I'd bargained for. While I was certainly aware of the band & owned dubbed copies of a few of their albums as a kid, I never gave them much of my attention & can't say that I ever thought of them as a genuine crossover thrash artist. That position hasn't changed much in the current day either with none of Vicious Circle's early material fitting the bill, most of it sitting mainly in punk territory. I hadn't been exposed to their 1987 "Hope & Wait" E.P. before now though so I was hoping that perhaps it might be at least partially responsible for the band's metal status on other well-known websites. "Hope & Wait" was the title of a song from the Victorian's album from earlier the same year so the E.P. seemed to be more of an extended single & has been pretty hard to track down but I finally managed to locate it & have given it a few listens this morning, only to discover that it's a fairly inconsequential record in Vicious Circle's back catalogue.

The "Hope & Wait" E.P. includes four short songs spanning just fifteen minutes, three of which were already available on 1987's "Rhyme with Reason" album which was more of a compilation of material that was recorded at different points in Vicious Circle's recent past. Most of that material was drawn from 1986's disappointing "Reflections" sophomore album but there were also a couple of new tracks included with both of them reappearing here. The E.P. was recorded at Sound Concept Studios in 1987 & sports a fairly raw production job with a tinny guitar sound but it suits the material quite well & affords all of the instruments plenty of room to move. Tracks like "Rule 17" & "Turn to Stone" sounded a little out of place on "Rhyme with Reason" given that their production was so obviously different from the rest of the material but here we see the four songs sounding much more unified, even if Vicious Circle do explore a few different subgenres across the short tracklisting.

Once again, I do have to question Vicious Circle's claims to a crossover thrash tag because there's really only one song that fits the bill here in the fairly average "Turn to Stone". The opening title track sits somewhere between hard rock & heavy metal, "Rule 17" is more of a conventional punk rock outing & "Warhol Crazy" (the only new track included & the only reason for the more diehard punters to purchase "Hope & Wait") sees the band returning to their hardcore punk roots. Despite the variation, I think the hardcore punk tag fits much better as a generic tag for this collection of songs in much the same way as it did for Vicious Circle's last few releases. This record does sound a little more raw due to the tinny production job I mentioned earlier but the tracks themselves aren't wildly different from anything we'd heard from these punks previously, especially given that this was now the third Vicious Circle release to feature "Hope & Wait" which is a song that I still haven't taken much of a shining to. I do enjoy "Rule 17" & "Warhol Crazy" though which goes further to enforce my existing position that Vicious Circle should probably have simply stuck to their hardcore guns as they seem to be a better punk band than they are when they're exploring a wider musical palate with front man Paul Lindsay's snot-nosed delivery always ensuring that Vicious Circle's punk credentials are kept intact.

At the end of the day, I find it hard to find any reason why anyone would need to own "Hope & Wait". Perhaps the more obsessive fan might need to own the only new track here in "Warhol Crazy" but anyone else would be better served by investing in the "Rhyme with Reason" album as it's a more consistent & enjoyable record than this one & offers a lot more value for money too. I'm sure there was a reason for the release of "Hope & Wait" from a record company perspective but I'm not really seeing it personally. It's certainly not horrible but it is a little flat & doesn't do much to enhance Vicious Circle's existing reputation as one of the leaders of the Aussie hardcore scene.

For fans of early Depression, Condemned? & Permanent Damage.