Circle of Dust Returns With New Music, Classic Reissues

I wrote a review/remembrance of Circle of Dust’s self-titled debut for last year’s “Chrindie ’95″ writing project, where I said this:

For its time, Circle of Dust represented some of the best of what the Christian industrial genre had to offer. Musically, it could hold its own with anything my non-Christian rivethead friends were listening to, but without sacrificing one iota of Christian conviction. 20 years later, I still get a charge out of it.

A number of the “Chrindie ‘95” pieces were about artists and bands who are now defunct and no longer recording. I had long considered Circle of Dust to be one of those bands, if only because mastermind Scott Albert (now known as Klayton) was busy with his Celldweller project. As it turns out, though, Circle of Dust isn’t nearly as dead as I thought.

Not only is Klayton remastering and reissuing all of the original Circle of Dust albums, having regained the rights to them last year, but he’s also going to release a new Circle of Dust album in December 2016. To kick things off, he’s released a new single titled “Contagion” — click here to download — that picks up right where Circle of Dust left off two decades ago. Indeed, it’s rather nostalgic, packed with tons of metal riffs, pulsing electronics, distorted beats and vocals, and other hallmarks of mid-90s industrial rock.

As for the Circle of Dust reissues — the self-titled debut, 1993’s Metamorphosis, 1994’s Brainchild, and 1998’s Disengage — they’ll begin on March 4 with the debut, with the other reissues following every eight weeks. The reissued debut will contain material from both the 1992 and 1995 versions of the debut (it’s a long story) as well as a second disc of outtakes, alternate versions, remixes, and a bonus single titled “Neophyte” from the new Circle of Dust album.

Click here to preorder the reissue and/or buy some other Circle of Dust collectibles (like an unopened cassette copy of Circle of Dust’s 1992 debut).

Now, if only someone would reissue the Under Midnight albums…

Thanks to Alan Parish for the head’s up.