Dead Letter Circus – Dead Letter Circus album review

Progressive Aussie rockers Dead Letter Circus keep their ballast intact

Dead Letter Circus

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Dead Letter Circus

Dead Letter Circus

1. The Armour You Own
2. The Real You
3. Change
4. Running Out Of Time
5. We Own the Light
6. Heartline
7. Ladders For Leaders
8. Trade Places
9. Say It Won't Be Long
10. Home

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On 2015’s Aesthesis Australia’s Dead Letter Circus showed signs of mellowing into their stride, subtly putting aside the robust and pain-stricken crescendos that first caught our attention with the expansive This Is The Warning. Aesthesis pointed them in the direction of radio-friendly territory where there’s little place for pronounced heaviness. 

With their eponymous album, thank goodness, they haven’t done away with the riffs altogether and those twinkling guitar tones, not to mention Kim Benzie’s consistently dreamy vocals, the standout drumming of Luke Williams and production by Forrester Savell (Karnivool, Skyharbor), have afforded Dead Letter Circus a recognisable sound. 

There’s no instant hit here but the quality ingredients that give every track a sheen like the hard-hitting euphoria of Say It Won’t Be Long or the striving Tool-isms of We Own The Light are pushing the guys ever closer to the status they deserve.

Holly Wright

With over 10 years’ experience writing for Metal Hammer and Prog, Holly has reviewed and interviewed a wealth of progressively-inclined noise mongers from around the world. A fearless voyager to the far sides of metal Holly loves nothing more than to check out London’s gig scene, from power to folk and a lot in between. When she’s not rocking out Holly enjoys being a mum to her daughter Violet and working as a high-flying marketer in the Big Smoke.