Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008
EAC extraction logfile from 28. April 2011, 2:47
Norther / Circle Regenerated
Used drive : ATAPI iHAP122 9 Adapter: 3 ID: 0
Read mode : SecureUtilize accurate stream : YesDefeat audio cache : YesMake use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : NoFill up missing offset samples with silence : YesDelete leading and trailing silent blocks : NoNull samples used in CRC calculations : YesUsed interface : Installed external ASPI interface
Used output format : User Defined EncoderSelected bitrate : 40 kBit/sQuality : HighAdd ID3 tag : NoCommand line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\flac.exeAdditional command line options : -6 -V %s
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector --------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 0:00.00 | 3:48.36 | 0 | 17135 2 | 3:48.36 | 4:06.53 | 17136 | 35638 3 | 7:55.14 | 4:04.14 | 35639 | 53952 4 | 11:59.28 | 4:49.07 | 53953 | 75634 5 | 16:48.35 | 4:05.73 | 75635 | 94082 6 | 20:54.33 | 4:23.27 | 94083 | 113834 7 | 25:17.60 | 4:21.45 | 113835 | 133454 8 | 29:39.30 | 4:16.19 | 133455 | 152673 9 | 33:55.49 | 4:16.45 | 152674 | 171918 10 | 38:12.19 | 5:49.20 | 171919 | 198113 11 | 44:01.39 | 3:36.35 | 198114 | 214348 12 | 47:37.74 | 3:18.26 | 214349 | 229224 13 | 50:56.25 | 3:29.63 | 229225 | 244962
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename D:\Download\Norther - Circle Regenerated.wav
Peak level 99.8 % Range quality 100.0 % Copy CRC 855A0A76 Copy OK
No errors occurred
AccurateRip summary
Track 1 not present in databaseTrack 2 not present in databaseTrack 3 not present in databaseTrack 4 not present in databaseTrack 5 not present in databaseTrack 6 not present in databaseTrack 7 not present in databaseTrack 8 not present in databaseTrack 9 not present in databaseTrack 10 not present in databaseTrack 11 not present in databaseTrack 12 not present in databaseTrack 13 not present in database
None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database
End of status report

REM GENRE "Melodic Death Metal"REM DATE 2011REM DISCID A80CC20DREM COMMENT "ExactAudioCopy v0.99pb4"PERFORMER "Norther"TITLE "Circle Regenerated"FILE "Norther - Circle Regenerated.flac" WAVE TRACK 01 AUDIO TITLE "Through It All" PERFORMER "Norther" INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 02 AUDIO TITLE "The Hate I Bear" PERFORMER "Norther" INDEX 01 03:48:36 TRACK 03 AUDIO TITLE "Truth" PERFORMER "Norther" INDEX 01 07:55:14 TRACK 04 AUDIO TITLE "Some Day" PERFORMER "Norther" INDEX 01 11:59:28 TRACK 05 AUDIO TITLE "Break Myself Away" PERFORMER "Norther" INDEX 01 16:48:35 TRACK 06 AUDIO TITLE "Believe" PERFORMER "Norther" INDEX 01 20:54:33 TRACK 07 AUDIO TITLE "Falling" PERFORMER "Norther" INDEX 01 25:17:60 TRACK 08 AUDIO TITLE "We Do Not Care" PERFORMER "Norther" INDEX 01 29:39:30 TRACK 09 AUDIO TITLE "The Last Time" PERFORMER "Norther" INDEX 01 33:55:49 TRACK 10 AUDIO TITLE "Closing In" PERFORMER "Norther" INDEX 01 38:12:19 TRACK 11 AUDIO TITLE "New Beginning (Instrumental)" PERFORMER "Norther" INDEX 01 44:01:39 TRACK 12 AUDIO TITLE "Hear You Call My Name (New Acoustic Song)" PERFORMER "Norther" INDEX 01 47:37:74 TRACK 13 AUDIO TITLE "Bimbo (Lambretta Cover Song)" PERFORMER "Norther" INDEX 01 50:56:25

Norther have recently undergone some not insignificant lineup changes. With frontman, lead guitarist and founder Petri Lindroos having left to focus on fronting Ensiferum, the rest of the band have filled his shoes with new frontman Aleksi Sihvonen (ex Imperanon) and new guitarist Daniel Freyberg. Loss of an established member can make or break a band, particularly someone as influential on a band’s sound as it’s frontman, so Circle Regenerated is something of a baptism of fire for Norther’s new lineup.
This Norther is a very different beast from their previous incarnation. They’re still Children of Bodom’s better spoken, less crass younger brother, and they’re still playing very Scandinavian melo-death. However, where previous Norther has always been very song-oriented, and thus accessible, Circle Regenerated has a much more compositional focus, instruments having much more balanced relationships with each other. The guitar still carries most of the music, but there is a sense that this time, it is the first among equals rather than calling the shots while the rhythm section and keys slavishly do its bidding
Regular readers will know that anything with decent composition and arrangement really rubs me up the right way, and won’t be surprised to learn that I think this change in songwriting really works for Norther. It lends the album an air of musical sophistication that you don’t often see in melodic death metal. The rhythm section in particular seems to have been given much more free reign on this release. The bass actually plays lines now, as opposed to just copying what everyone else is doing – even playing a tasteful solo in ‘Closing In’ – and there are many inventive drum parts that break away from ‘fast feet’ and ‘halftime groove’ that seem to be as formulaic in melodeath drumming as blastbeats are in brutal death.
As might be expected, the vocals are quite different, but the main change is not in Sihvonen’s tone and delivery (which aren’t much different from Lindroos’ anyway), but in the arrangements, which Norther have really gone to town on. Norther have flirted with clean vocals all the way through their career, but there are significant clean parts on pretty much every track here, as well as several distinct styles of growling and some lamentable gang vocals. Perhaps ironically however, despite the cleans being more prevalent, they’re actually not all that melodically strong – indeed, the melodies they carry in places seem hesitant. It smacks of being written by someone who isn’t very experienced at writing clean vocal melodies, and seeing as the entire album was written by guitarist Kristian Ranta, who previously collaborated with Lindroos, that might be a viable explanation.
As a result of this and the much freer structures and arrangements, the album is much less of an easy listen than you might expect. The hooks are definitely there, but they’re much less immediate, there’s nothing even close to as catchy as ‘frozen angel’ from their last work, and in light of this, the clean vocals serve more as a device to provide epic expansiveness than carry melodies; you’ll need to listen a few times to get the most out of this album.
Circle Regenerated was probably not an easy album for Norther to make, and they’ve done a commendable job. I can see the less immediate hooks and less easy to follow song structures throwing some long time Norther fans, and there is definitely an argument for this album being less ‘focused’ than their past releases, but that said, whether a conscious effort on his part or not, Ranta’s songwriting is a different beast from Lindroos’, and that has forced Norther to change and grow in what I consider a positive direction (i.e, one that lessens the inevitable Children of Bodom comparisons). If the new lineup can find their feet and refine their songwriting in a way that marries melodeath accessibility with interesting music, this might well be the start of a new high point to Norther’s career.

#777
Aleksi Sihvonen - Vocals
Kristian Ranta - Guitar, Clean Vocals
Daniel Freyberg - Guitar, Backing Vocals
Jukka Koskinen - Bass, Backing Vocals
Tuomas Planman - Keyboards, Programming
Heikki Saari - Drums