UMUR Draws a Circle is the 2nd full-length studio album by Danish hard rock/ heavy rock act D-A-D ( then called Disneyland After Dark). The album was released in in June 1987 by Mega Records. Draws a Circle was produced by Mark Dearnley, who had worked as a studio technician on "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC ( the sound is decent but nothing special).

The band started out playing something as unconventional and un-Danish as cowpunk on their debut album "Call of the Wild (1986)". The music on Draws a Circle still have more than a few traces of that style, but it´s on this album that D-A-D started playing hard rock/ heavy rock and tracks like "Isn´t That Wild", "I Won´t Cut My Hair" ( which would later appear on the US version of the band´s 4th full-length studio album "Riskin' It All (1991)") and "God's Favorite" are probably the best examples of that. As mentioned the band had not completely given up their country/ cowpunk sound yet though and the America cover "A Horse With No Name" ( which on a sidenote is excellent) and "Black Crickets" are examples of that style. The band also venture into gospel rock territory in the song "There's A Ship", so bearing the eclectic nature of Draws a Circle in mind the album will probably appeal the most to an open minded hard rock listener.

I think there are some absolutely lovely tracks on i>Draws a Circle like "Isn´t That Wild", "I Won´t Cut My Hair", "God's Favorite" and "A Horse With No Name", but infortunately not all tracks on the album reach the same high quality level and there are a couple of rather forgettable tracks on the album too. So somewhere between a 3 and a 3.5 star rating is warranted. I guess I´ll be a proud nationalist this time and give out a 3.5 star rating.

Time Signature I won't cut my hair...

Genre: hard rock, post-punk, (heavy metal)

While "Call of the Wild" was more of a country-driven post-punk album, "D.A.D. Draws a Circle" is more of a hardrock album with both metal and punk elements. The opening track "Isn't that Wild" is more or less an all out punk song, while several of the other tracks contain a lot of punkt element, and, while more distorted, the guitar still has a twangy sound. A track like "Mightyhighty High" is mroe or less an all out hard rock song with a certain AC/DC feel to it, and "I Won't Cut My Hair" is a heavy blues rocker (and an anthem of many a Danish metalhead for many years). "Black Crickets" and "10 Knots" are more in the vein of the old style, while "Ride my Train", "God's Favorite" and, to some extent, "There's a Ship" (which is more of a hardrocabilly tune) draw more on traditional hardrock.

As with "Call of the Wild", the songs on this album are not bad, but I don't know how much "D.A.D. Draws a Circle" would appeal to most metalheads. I think that fans of hardrock and blues rock might like a lot of the tracks on the album though.