Since their 2005 debut album,
Memento Mori, Atlanta-based heavy metal band
Withered have replaced the rhythm section of Greg Hess and Wes Kever with bassist Mike Longoria and drummer Beau Brandon and switched record labels from Lifeforce to Prosthetic. But the core of the group remains guitarist/singers Chris Freeman and Mike Thompson, whose interplay is the signature sound on the band's second album,
Folie Circulaire. The two guitars provide majestic midtempo riffs on such songs as "Gnosis Unveils" and "Purification of Ignorance," although the band also manages some typical speed metal pummeling elsewhere. The CD booklet provides a lyric sheet that reveals abstract Biblical reflections on doom and gloom (sample verse: "Plague of man/For want of a purpose/At war with his nature/A useless passion"), and those sentiments would be unknown otherwise, since the howled vocals are utterly indiscernible in the mix. What matters here are those guitars, creating forceful music that carries a meaning of its own. ~ William Ruhlmann