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SIDE AThe Circle Band History: A Finnish Band's Story From Pori to Roadburn
Thirty-plus years, 71 verified releases, and a genre this Finnish experimental rock band invented for itself as a joke — here's the real history.
1991 — Pori
This Circle band history starts in 1991 in Pori, Finland, where bassist and vocalist Jussi Lehtisalo founded the group. He's the only member who has been present through the band's entire history — the rest of the lineup has shifted many times over three decades, with the current core stable since roughly the early 2000s.
The catalog
The band's first release, an EP called DNA, came out in 1991; the debut studio album, Meronia, followed in 1994 on Bad Vugum. From there the catalog grew fast and never really stopped: 28 studio albums, 16 live albums, 13 EPs and 7"s, 5 collaborations, and a handful of soundtrack-billed releases — 71 verified releases in total, running from 1991 to 2024's Muurahaiset.
The sound moves constantly: hypnotic, motorik krautrock in the early years, a hard turn toward heavy metal around 2002's Sunrise and 2005's Tulikoira, sparse ambient drone on 2006's Miljard, a deliberate "classic rock" costume on 2008's Hollywood, and doom and drone via Southern Lord Records on 2017's Terminal. Somewhere in the middle of all that, the band coined its own semi-serious genre label — NWOFHM, "New Wave of Finnish Heavy Metal" — first printed on Tulikoira, as a way of describing a sound that borrows metal's weight without committing to the genre. This stretch of the Circle band history is really the story of a band refusing to sit still, genre or otherwise.
Real recognition
Circle has genuine standing in international underground and heavy-music circles: a 2011 artist-in-residence run at Roadburn Festival (a major European heavy/psych festival — see Circle Live for more on the band's stage reputation), releases via Southern Lord Records and No Quarter, and a 2021 collaborative album, Henki, with English musician Richard Dawson on Domino Records. None of this reads like a legacy act coasting on an old reputation — the band kept releasing new music straight through to 2024.
Beyond Circle
No account of the Circle band history is complete without the side projects. Jussi Lehtisalo and his collaborators have also operated under half a dozen other names at once for decades — see the full side-projects map for Pharaoh Overlord, Rättö ja Lehtisalo, Ektroverde, and more.
The One Constant: Jussi Lehtisalo
Lehtisalo isn't just Circle's founder and only ever-present member — he also runs Ektro Records, the Pori label that has released Circle's own catalog alongside records by krautrock forebears Faust and the Japanese psych outfit Acid Mothers Temple. He's also the connective thread to Pharaoh Overlord, his other long-running project, which is close enough to Circle that in 2015 each band released an album credited to the other's name. Asked about Circle's reputation, he tends to deflect with dry humor rather than hype: "The biggest misconception about Circle is that we are the best band in the world. We are not. But we are dangerously close to being one."
A Rotating Finnish Cast Around One Fixed Point
The band that played Pori in 1991 looked different from the one touring today — Lehtisalo started on guitar, alongside drummer Juha Ahtiainen and bassist Marko Taipale, before later shifting to the bass-and-vocals role he's held since. Numerous musicians passed through over the following decade, including Olli Joukio, Teemu Korpipää, and Jani Viitanen, before the lineup stabilized around Mika Rättö, Tomi Leppänen, and Janne Westerlund for 2002's Sunrise, with guitarist brothers Julius and Pekka Jääskeläinen joining every recording from 2009 onward.
Pori: A Small Town With a Big Reputation
Circle grew out of a tight cluster of Pori musicians who've cycled through shared projects like Kuusumun Profeetta and Bensiini — a scene Lehtisalo has framed as being about artistic possibility, not commercial success. That spirit produced one of the band's stranger moves: for 2013's Frontier, Circle's own members recorded under the name Falcon, while a different lineup was loaned the Circle name itself for a separate release the same year — part of a run of identity-blurring gestures tied to the band's home scene. It also fits a band Swedish paper Dagens Nyheter once called the best in the world "in every category," a claim Lehtisalo treats as a punchline, not a boast.
Circle Band History: Frequently Asked Questions
Did Jussi Lehtisalo always play bass in Circle?
No. When Circle formed in Pori in 1991, Lehtisalo played guitar alongside drummer Juha Ahtiainen and bassist Marko Taipale. He later moved to the bass-and-vocals role he's held for the rest of the band's history.
What does NWOFHM stand for?
"New Wave of Finnish Heavy Metal" — a genre the band invented for itself as an in-joke, first printed on 2005's Tulikoira, describing a sound that borrows metal's weight without committing to the genre.
What other bands or labels is Jussi Lehtisalo connected to?
He founded Ektro Records, which has released Circle's own material as well as albums by Faust and Acid Mothers Temple, and he leads the side project Pharaoh Overlord, which is close enough to Circle that the two bands have swapped album credits.
Did Circle ever record or perform under a different name?
Yes — for 2013's Frontier, Circle's own members recorded under the name Falcon, while a different lineup was loaned the Circle name itself for a separate release, one of several identity-blurring gestures tied to the band's home scene.
Why has Circle stayed in Pori rather than relocating to Helsinki?
Pori's small, overlapping music community — which also produced acts like Kuusumun Profeetta and Bensiini — gave this Finnish experimental rock band a scene built around experimentation over chart ambition, something Lehtisalo has cited as core to the band's outlook.
Is Circle really "the best band in the world," as some claim?
That's a joke more than a fact. Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter once called Circle the best band in the world "in every category," but Lehtisalo has waved the claim off himself, saying the band is merely "dangerously close" to deserving it — in keeping with how this Finnish experimental rock band talks about its own reputation.