Agarwaen: Circo De La Muerte
Photo by Rocktografia
Finnish "Asylum Metal" outfit Agarwaen take the line between music and theater and gleefully trample it into the sawdust of a nightmarish carnival. Their latest single "Circo De La Muerte" (Spanish for "Circus of Death") is less a single and more an immersive horror experience, one that demands to be watched as much as heard.
The accompanying music video opens like a children's nightmare come to life: young kids wander into what appears to be an abandoned amusement park, where they're greeted by a singing clown whose cheerfulness is just slightly too manic, too wrong. Vocalist Anthony "Vryko" Hodju delivers his lines with the unsettling energy of a carnival barker who's seen too much, his voice threading between melodic invitation and unhinged menace.
Musically, "Circo De La Muerte" is a bizarre but strangely compelling blend. The song opens with an accordion that immediately establishes the warped carnival atmosphere. This is horror music-box territory, the kind of sound that precedes something terrible in a film. The verses sway with an almost drunken rhythm, creating a disorienting sense of being led through a funhouse by someone you shouldn't trust.
Around the 2:20 mark, the song erupts into genuinely heavy territory. The guitars slam in with crushing weight as the video shows the clown appearing behind the children, who scatter in momentary terror. It's the musical equivalent of the jump scare, and it works—the contrast between the waltz-like verses and these brutal breakdowns creates genuine tension. Then, just as quickly, the song settles back into its creepy carnival lullaby mode, that accordion wheezing away like the soundtrack to a rusted carousel that hasn't stopped spinning in decades.
The lyrics lean into the circus-of-horrors metaphor with gleeful abandon: "Welcome to the circus / Of murder'n'disorder / Creepy clowns all around us / Circo de la Muerte, Muerte!" There's a character named Anton experiencing something that might be real or might be hallucinatory—the song keeps that question deliberately unanswered. The confusion, the masks, the rapturous feeling that overtakes him: it all feeds into Agarwaen's broader aesthetic of madness as performance art.
Visually, the video commits fully to the bit. As it progresses, the boundaries between the band members (dressed as various horror characters), the children, and reality itself begin to dissolve in an almost psychedelic blur. One child grins with disturbing glee while holding a knife, momentarily becoming part of the horror rather than fleeing from it. The whole thing culminates in a comedic beat when a mall-cop-style security guard chases everyone out of the park, as if bureaucracy is the only thing that can puncture a nightmare.
The overall effect is like watching a Stephen King story directed by someone who grew up on both European horror cinema and extreme metal. It shouldn't work—the accordion, the theatrical vocals, the heavy riffs, the horror-show imagery—but Agarwaen makes it work through sheer commitment to their bizarre vision.
Production-wise, the single benefits from serious talent behind the boards. Teemu Aalto (known for his work with melodic death metal acts Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum) handles production duties, giving the song a professional polish that ensures the chaos sounds intentional rather than sloppy. Mastering comes courtesy of Svante Forsbäck, whose resume includes work with Rammstein and Nightwish—artists who understand theatrical metal as well as anyone. Forsbäck's involvement gives "Circo De La Muerte" the sonic heft it needs; the heavy sections genuinely crush, and the quieter, creepier moments maintain clarity without losing their unsettling atmosphere.
"Circo De La Muerte" serves as the lead single from Agarwaen's upcoming third album The Murder Trend, due July 3rd via Over The Border Records. If this track is any indication, the album will be an experience—probably not background music for your morning commute, but perfect for anyone who thinks metal should be dangerous, unpredictable, and maybe just a little bit unhinged.
Agarwaen has built their reputation on what they call "Asylum Metal," a self-styled genre that mixes industrial elements, horror punk aesthetics, and various strains of extreme metal into something genuinely unusual. Since reviving the project in 2019 with the album Dottore I, followed by 2023's Channel: Lunacy, they've developed a live show that reportedly resembles "a scene from a mental asylum horror movie." They've toured Europe and played Finland's prestigious TUSKA festival, proving there's an audience for their particular brand of madness.
Is "Circo De La Muerte" good? That depends entirely on what you want from your music. If you need traditional song structures, conventional beauty, or anything resembling normalcy, this isn't for you. But if you appreciate artists who commit fully to a concept, who understand that metal can be absurd and theatrical without losing its intensity, then Agarwaen offers something different. They've created a sonic funhouse where the scares are real, the riffs are heavy, and the accordion is somehow the least weird thing happening.
For fans of: Rob Zombie, Carnival of Souls-era Avatar, Sopor Aeternus, theatrical horror metal
Rating: Give it a watch/listen if you're curious. The video is essential to the full experience:
