Los Angeles power metal trio NINTH CIRCLE began recording the follow up to their 2008 release, The Power Of One, on February 4th at Ardent Audio Productions in Torrance, CA with Rich Wenzel at the helm engineering the drum tracks.

The band offers an update to their current progress:

"We began tracking Dave's drums on Saturday February 4th and finished on Sunday February 5th", explains bassist Frank Forray. "It was a great experience to work with Rich. He was recommended to us by our inner [Ninth] Circle. He was good friends with our former producer Bill Krodell who passed away a few years back. It was important to us to find someone in the family. Rich did a tremendous job with Dave's drums. The tracks are huge, enormous and heavy! Rich's studio is very impressive and extremely comfortable to work in. And Rich himself is a great guy! He was real easy to work with, got the best out of us and was very opened minded with where we were going with each song. I also found his stories about touring with the Beach Boys extremely enjoyable given I'm a huge Beach Boys fan too!"

Frank goes on, "We worked very hard in those two days to lay everything down. Dave was an animal in there as well! He nailed everything in about 2 takes. Listening back to the tracks we started to get sense of what we have on our hands; an excitingly heavy beginning to a real kick-ass metal record. We finished tracks for 12 songs, including a surprise cover."

Dave added, "Yeah, it was a blast working with Rich, everything just seemed to flow... he has a great room, and got some killer drum sounds! The entire 2-day session went like clock-work, we just laid the tracks down, and they worked - they had all the elements we were looking for: energy, groove, dynamics, and intensity."

Dave continues, "I've always been a fan of John Bonham, and he is without a doubt one of my biggest influences. I've always loved his drum sounds; that 'ambient room mic sound' and the huge bass drum sound. Rich was able to get that type of 'open' sound from the room mics, and then combine it with the 'in your face' presence of the close-mic'd sound, and the combination or convergence of those two sound elements results in a huge (I mean HUGE) drum sound!" (laughter)

Dennis adds, "Not only was this the first time we worked with Rich, this is the first time we've recorded with Dave. It was rewarding, as well as inspiring recording with Dave. His experience and talent shined though during those two days, and we hammered those songs out one after the other. There's an old saying that the studio mics don't lie."

"We've all heard stories how things can get pretty tense in the studio...", Dennis continues. "Although it obviously was a task over the 2 days, we approached it in the same manner as we have rehearsing for this recording: the feel was so natural, yet precise. Working with Rich also had significant benefits and his resume speaks for itself. With that being said, this was our first time working with him so there was a small (very small) level of uncertainty. His work not only surpassed our expectations, he hit this one out of the ballpark!"

Frank concludes, "The tracks are now in the hands of Jeff Prentice who will produce the album. We will begin tracking bass and guitars in about week once the drum tracks are edited. So we're moving camp from Torrance to Redondo Beach...ahh to be only steps away from the beach and pubs!"

Updates to follow.