Review by MartinDavey87 for Circus Maximus - The 1st Chapter (2005)

This has been sat in my playlist for well over a year by this point. I’ve heard it many times, but when it comes to writing a review about it, I have no idea what to say, or how to start. So here’s the lowdown, released in 2005, ‘The 1st Chapter’ is the debut album by Norwegian progressive metal band, Circus Maximus. 

That’s pretty much all there is to it. It’s a solid album, which ticks off all the prog metal clichés; fantastic musicianship, a singer with a powerful voice who can hit incredibly high notes, long, intricate song structures, and thoughtful, introspective lyrics. It’s all here. 

One thing I struggled with is that there’s nothing that specifically stands out that I can comment on. The music is really good and well produced, sounding a lot like Dream Theater or Symphony X (obviously), which is standard for this genre. In fact, there is one absolutely fantastic track, ‘Glory of the Empire’, which sounds like it could have come off of Symphony X’s album ‘The Odyssey’, so if you like that album, you’ll love this! The lyrics even have the legendary Gladiator line about “what happens in life echoes in eternity”. You know the one. The absolute cheek of them! 

Still, lack of enthusiasm aside for my review, this is a good album. ‘Sin’, ‘Why Am I Here’, ‘Biosfear’, bonus track ‘Haunted Dreams’ and the aforementioned ‘…Empire’ song are all worth checking out, and I’ve no doubt that Circus Maximus will stand out a lot more with subsequent releases.