The Band were originally conceived over a telephone conversation between Adam Lewis and Daniel Barnett in November 2005, in which the former party stated that he wanted to "start a doom band" to which the latter party replied, "what the hell is doom?".
In the summer of 2006, the band recorded their first e.p. entitled 'Burning Witches For Glue', followed a year later by the highly experimental second offering 'Lightswitch Impulses', which has gathered a cult following in its wake due to the use of two basses and schizo-noise shreaks mixed with progressive, post-rock instrumentals. During the past three years the band have secured high profile support slots with the likes of Taint, Noxagt, An Albatross, Rolo Tomassi and more recently Manatees, Part Chimp and The Airborne Toxic Event.
The band released their debut album, 'Dance-off with a Triceratops' in 2009 with a special instore performance at Spillers Records. This was swiftly followed by being the first band to have music released by The National Museums of Wales' 'Ymateb/Respond' project. March 2010 has seen the departure original bassist Rhys and the introduction Tariq Sarwar.
Nice Things Said By Nice People
Adam T. Walton (BBC Radio Wales):
"Excellent, original tunes" "Pretty Remarkable"
'Buzz Magazine':
"(CRT) can lurch out of the light and in to the shade with a snap of a chord, often to fine effect" and have described the music as, "Fat-arsed Instrumental Heaviness".
'Metro':
"Whether it's the name of a black metal band or a Tool album, the deployment of Latin in modern music is almost invariably shorthand for po-faced heaviness and absurd portentousness. Happily, though Circa Regna Tonat have a name that would set the darkest of metallers aglow with envy, the Caerphilly quartet are cut from an altogether more colourful cloth. That's not to say they're not loud- they're very, very loud- but their experimental noise rock has as much light as shade, instrumentals marked as much by the subtle build up of tension as the pummelling, drum-dominated roar of their full stride. Their eight-track 2006 EP, Burning Witches For Glue, provides a decent introduction, but CRT are best sampled in the more visceral environment of a live show."
'Silent Words Speak Loudest':
"as their name (Around the Throne Thunder Roars) and their friendship with Swansea Bruisers, Taint suggest, CRT make one hell of a racket. Propelled by awesome drumming. they're best when on the attack" (silentwordsspeakloudest.blogspot.com).
Bethan Elfyn BBC Radio 1:
"Nice And Heavy" "Beautiful"
Buzz Magazine June 2009:
**** Dance-Off with a Triceratops sounds like a record struggling to get laid, but in a good way. Passages of reflective moodiness alternate with outbursts of boiling-over frustration, as Caerphilly's CRT give vent to their collective inner dinosaur. The title track is insistently driven a Jupiter-massive riff, while the off-kilter agitated opening of Java Script Gospel paves the way for ensuing denser atmospherics. Vital Signs sees aimless flailing overpowering purposeful design, but the rest of the record strikes an adroit balance between the technical and the instinctual.
The Joy Collective:
a fantastic band. CRT rock. They always rock. I’ve seen them roughly a million times now and they never let me down. Sweeping, intense, loud, stripey, intricate, shouty, stubbley, Circa are all of these things and more. They combine post-rock melody and math-rock finger tapping with bursts of screaming which sound like hard work on the ears. It isn’t. They always have a tune. I can’t think of a band to compare them to right now but it certainly isn’t Rage Against The Machine which somebody downstairs said. He was quickly corrected by the singer of a well known Cardiff beat combo
God is in the TV:
Cardiff’s Circa Regna Tonat are a curious beast, a band that almost cry out for contradictions to be written about them; odd, harsh, beautiful and bold. Their first EP, ‘Lightswitch Impulses, featured all manner of different sounds and feelings, with perhaps the term ‘post-rock’ anchoring the most meaning to their sound. Their second EP ‘Dance-Off with a Triceratops' is brought forward by a more focused band, writing better songs. Progressive rock indeed!
Circa Regna Tonat are taking part in the Ymateb/Respond project run by National Museums of Wales. Download the band's contribution, 'Atta' for free from www.museumwales.ac.uk
