Magic Circle: Black Sabbath Worship from Boston Hardcore’s Finest

Photo by Dakota Gordon

When you hear Brendan Radigan’s high-pitched, Ozzy-esque vocals over the hard-fuzz riffs and shredding solos of Magic Circle, it’s possible to forget that he also fronts one of the hardest mosh bands in Boston, The Rival Mob. But that is exactly what Magic Circle is: Some guys from the “elite crew” of Boston’s hardcore scene emulating the hard rock glory of Sabbath. And the results are so much fucking fun.

Worship bands are a polarizing concept; the idea that a group of musicians would get together with the intention of sounding exactly like another band that came before them is unoriginal to some, but entirely exciting to others. In the end, the quality of a worship band comes down to two questions: subject and execution. And Sabbath and perfect really isn’t that bad when you think about it.

I caught up with Magic Circle guitarist and songwriter Chris Corry as we drove from one gig to another at Toronto’s annual punk festival Not Dead Yet. As I ate jerk pork in the back seat and he stopped to take photos of Sweet Pete’s Bike Shop because a sign that said “Sweet Pete’s” simply couldn’t be passed undocumented, we discussed Magic Circle’s record, Journey Blind on 20 Buck Spin (which you can stream in it’s entirety below), seeing concerts in arenas, and the underground music rivalry between YouTube and Bandcamp.

Photo by Dakota Gordon

Noisey: Who are you and where do you come from?
Chris Corry: My name is Chris Corry and I grew up in Northern Virginia. My family is in Springfield now, so about 20 minutes from the District of Columbia.

Is that where you started going to shows?
Yeah. I went to a lot of big concerts when I was in high school. There would be these big radio station concerts at RFK Stadium. I think it’s a soccer stadium now. I saw the Ramones in 1994, there were those 20 bands for 20 bucks things, I saw a lot of alternative bands that people care about now that they didn’t care about, like I saw Hum, Archers of Loaf, PJ Harvey, Primus. The most violent mosh pit I’ve ever seen was for Primus, not fucking kidding man. They brought the pain.

And what was your first DIY stuff?
I went to punk shows and stuff. Just local bands that you would never have even heard of in Northern Virginia. There was this store called Record Convergence about 15 minutes from where I grew up. It’s a dry cleaner now. They had it all there. There was old hard rock and punk and metal. Local bands had their demos there. I went to see a lot of those local bands. I started going to big hardcore shows after that, but the first shows I saw were with no name bands from the 90s.

And when did you start playing in bands?
I had a couple of hardcore bands in high school that didn’t really do anything. And I started playing in hardcore bands in Boston.

Why did you move to Boston?
College.

Where?
Northeastern University.

For what?
Graphic design.

Do you do that for work?
I don’t do it for work. I work at a school actually. I do music stuff with kids. I record music in our music studio there.

That’s awesome. When did this band start?
Magic Circle started in, honestly dude, 2010. Me and the other guys in the band, Justin who plays bass, Q who plays drums, Brendan who’s the singer, and Dan who’s the other guitar player, we got together the end of 2010 and practiced for eight months, recorded in the spring of 2011 and had a finished record and didn’t know what to do with it. Maybe six months later we put it out, put a couple songs on the ol’ YouTube. Which is I guess is how you get people who have never heard of your band to hear your band.

YouTube before Bandcamp?
So historically speaking, I don’t know the timeline of when Bandcamp came to be [Laughs]. It was probably around but maybe we weren’t aware of it, maybe you needed to be a real underground Bandcamp kind of person. We put some songs online in the fall of 2011 and then we did a couple shows and we pressed two songs onto a single in 2012. Armageddon Shop in Boston, which is a cool store that exists there that releases records from time to time, put out our first LP. And we’ve done some more shows since then pretty regularly. Started working on a new LP. We were rehearsing it and writing it in 2014 and then we recorded it in the beginning of 2015 and it’s all done now.

Where did you record it?
At my practice space The Paincave and at out bass player’s parents basement. We did the drums in the basement and we did everything else in the practice space.

What are your biggest influences on Magic Circle?
Definitely Black Sabbath, man. That’s my favorite band of all time. I try not to just wholesale rip it off, we mix in other things and mix together other ideas. But bluntly, that’s the biggest influence.

How do you guys write a song?
Usually I sit down at home, play some guitar, come up with some riffs. Then I work them out in a skeleton, just a basic format, bring it to the other dudes, we tinker around with it a little bit, let them hear everything I got and then we make a rough demo of it before we do the actual recording. We do all the vocals, all the guitar solos. It’s weird because it’s kind of like we record the record twice. I had already heard every song completed before we did the proper recording of the LP. That way we weed out ideas that don’t work and make little adjustments and make sure we’re pleased with everything. So then when we do it for real there are no questions going into it.

Photo by Sarah Kitteringham

What’s your relationship like with 20 Buck Spin?
Real cool, man. We talked to a few people that had done stuff on the label. Dave who runs the label got in touch after the first LP came out. And it wasn’t even to work with us or anything, he was just like, “hey, I really enjoyed the record, good job.” We had mutual friends but we didn’t know each other. When we were working out how we were going to release this one after we recorded it I just kind of cold called him and was like, “hey I don’t know if you’re interested but we have a record and here’s the songs and here’s the art. If you’re interested we need a label to put it out.” It’s been real easy since then. He’s real communicative, seems to give a shit about what he’s doing, seems to be really psyched about all the bands he’s working with. So that’s cool. A real easy guy to work with.

And you do Painkiller. Why didn’t you put this record out?
Basically Painkiller does hardcore and punk records, and this is just not that. It’s a different thing.

What’s coming up for shows?
We’re gonna be in Europe next year, like April of 2016 for a short little jaunt. Other than that I don’t think we have anything on the books. I think the idea is once the record gets out we’re gonna be playing more shows. But we’re just woodshedding it right now. Jamming. Practicing. Maybe working on a couple covers.

Like what?
We were talking about maybe doing an Aerosmith song but I don’t know if that’s going to happen or not. One of the songs from Draw the Line.

Do you go to metal shows a lot?
I guess. Boston’s not really a big metal town to be honest. I don’t actually feel like I’m super immersed in any current music scene. I buy a lot of music. There is a metal scene in Boston, I don’t want to give the impression that there isn’t. But I don’t go out to as many shows as I used to.

Photo by Sarah Kitteringham

Where do you like seeing shows in Boston?
A lot of people don’t like it, but I like seeing shows at The Middle East upstairs. It’s a dive but it has a little flavor. I’ll go to big concerts at the Comcast Center. I saw Blue Öyster Cult in a weird theater about 40 minutes north of Boston, like in a place where they do stage plays. All the seats are bolted to the floor. It was a really nice, relaxed evening with Blue Öyster Cult. There were people eating popcorn next to me and stuff, it was really fun.

Are there other towns in Massachusetts that you like going to to see shows or play shows?
I really like going out to Western Mass. Last time Magic Circle played there was probably a year and a half ago. We played at a bar with World Domination.

Do you like World Domination?
Oh yeah, absolutely. Tony [of World Domination, SQRM, Gluebag, and Crystalline Roses] actually filled in for us at that show. Our drummer couldn’t make it so our bassist played drums and Tony filled in and played bass. That show was really fun. I like everything Tony does. He’s an amazing musician. If I’m putting anybody over in this interview I want it to be Tony Pasquarosa. An incredible musician, an incredible artist, just a cool fucking guy all around. He’s filled in for us a couple times, and it’s so easy. I don’t have to worry about teaching him much of the stuff. But yeah, last time we played out in Western Mass was with him. I just like it out there, it feels a little more rural, a little more relaxed.

Yeah they’ve got this funny little thing going on out there, where there’s a music and art scene but you’re in the woods at the same time.
It’s almost like an anti-city because everybody there is on some trip with their music or their art or their fucking writing. It feels like not a single person is working in a bank or anything like that. Every single person is like, “yeah I’m just working on my art.” Usually you associate that with living in a city.

And anywhere else in Massachusetts?
We played at Ralph’s Diner in Worcester not too long ago, which is this weird old building that looks like they added different rooms and portions on to it over the years. I’m sure it’s a fucking death trap. It’s been there I think since the 80’s, and it’s a cool place to play. It’s at the back of this big industrial park so there’s a huge storage building next to it and they’ll set up a projector and project movies onto it. I was watching Dawn of the Dead there one time in between bands. I like that place a lot. I like places that have some local color.

Any words of wisdom you want to impart on the readers of Noisey?
Everybody should do whatever they want. Whatever you want to do just do it because that’s the only way you’ll be happy. And try to find a way to make money off it I guess.

Reed Dunlea is on the internet.