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Alongside Depression, the Melbourne band Vicious Circle was that city's most influential hardcore band of the 1980s. Vicious Circle also proved to be a very prolific recording outfit, and while the band's records sold to a dedicated few in Australia, they sold reasonable quantities outside their own country in places like the US West Coast. Perth born drummer Russel Hopkinson replaced original drummer Michael in 1984. From the earliest Vicious Circle recordings, "Blood Race" and "Police Brutality" appeared on the compilation Eat Your Head (No Masters Voice, 1984) which also featured tracks by Civil Dissident, Murder Murder Suicide, End Result and more. "Police Brutality" was also featured on the legendary P.E.A.C.E. comp LP (R Radical Records). The same year the band issued their first EP, Search For Solution, on Phil McDougall's Reactor label. The EP sold all 1000 copies, incentive enough for the band to record its debut album The Price of Progress (Reactor, 1985). The album was a groundbreaking release in the annals of the local hardcore scene. UK label Children of the Revolution licensed the album in November '85. The US connection led to them issuing a split album with California band Youth Brigade in April of 1986, in the same month Reactor released the first Vicious Circle single "A Nightmare So Quick/Viewing Time". By that stage, David Ross had replaced Hopkinson on drums and Keith Chatham (ex-Death Sentence) had come in on bass to allow Alby Brovedani to concentrate on rhythm guitar. By the time the band had come to record their second album Reflections, Chatham had left and Brovedani was back on bass. Reflections, which was released October 1986, charted the band's progress, with elements of melody seeping into the band's all out thrashcore approach. California-based label Boner released the album in the US. Vicious Circle undertook a three month US tour where they played shows with bands like Final Conflict, Agnostic Front, GBH, MDC, Life Sentence, Attitude Adjustment, Crucifucks and more. At the end of 1986, James Lynch (ex-Children of Sorrow) replaced Ross on drums, In September '87 the band released one more record on Reactor, the 12" EP Hope and Wait, before signing up with Sydney label Waterfont for the LP Into The Void. The band continued to play around Melbourne, but broke up in 1990. Lindsay and Ruminicik teamed up with Danny (ex-Depression) to form the skatecore band Rue Morgue, they put out a few records but by '94/'95 Linday and Ruminicik had revived Vicious Circle, in March 1996 the band released the Fixated EP. With a now stable lineup and sounding harder and rawer than ever the band released the 12 track Internal Headstrength album in 1997 on Spend and in 1999 they released the Perfect World Disaster album on Scott Toe To Toe's Resist Records. |
DISCOGRAPHY Releases CIRCLE OF THE DOOMED... tape (demo) SEARCH FOR THE SOLUTION 7" (Reactor, 1984) PRICE OF PROGRESS LP (Reactor, 1985) VICIOUS CIRCLE/PERDITION split LP (Flipside, 1985) VICIOUS CIRCLE/YOUTH BRIGADE 12" (Reactor, 1986) A NIGHTMARE SO QUICK 7" (Reactor, 1986) REFLECTIONS LP (Reactor, 1986) HOPE AND WAIT 12" (Reactor, 1987) INTO THE VOID LP (Waterfront, 1988) RHYME WITH REASON LP (Manic Ears, 1989) REACTIVATE CD/LP (Def, 1995) FIXATED CD/EP (Spent, 199) INTERNAL HEADSTRENGTH CD/LP (Spent, 1997) PERFECT WORLD DISASTER CD/LP (Resist, 1999) Compilations EAT YOUR HEAD 2LP (Reactor, 1984) "Blood Race", "Police Brutality" BRAIN OF STONE tape (BCT, 1984) P.E.A.C.E. 2LP (R Radical, 1984) "Police Brutality" OVERSEAS CONNECTION LP (Double A, 1987) THE NOT SO LUCKY COUNTRY 2LP (Reactor, 1988) "The Jokers Palace" INFO Liner Notes/Lyrics to Vicious Circle/Perdition LP Lyrics to Reflections LP Interview from Skull & Crossbones #7 A 1988 interview from the UK. Thanks to Federico for typing and sending it. Interview from Talk is Cheap This is a brief interview from the late 90's on an Australian zine's website. |