Circle of Dust - Reception and Controversy

Reception and Controversy

Circle of Dust was popular in Christian alternative metal circles during most of the 1990s. Unusual for an underground alternative Christian band of the time, Circle of Dust gained nearly as much exposure and appreciation in mainstream industrial audiences as it did among Christian audiences. Circle of Dust, along with Argyle Park, are regularly cited as influences by modern day Christian industrial, industrial metal, and electronic rock bands. Continued interest has been sufficient enough that in the early 2000s a small independent record company called Retroactive Records bought the rights to the old Circle of Dust, Argyle Park, and Brainchild albums and began to remaster and re-issue them in limited runs of 1,000. However, these re-issues have been done without any input from Klayton himself, who has stated displeasure at the fact that his old works are being marketed again without his say and without him receiving any royalties.

Circle of Dust (and Argyle Park) was criticized heavily by some Christian music press and by many fans for not having religious enough lyrics, or for putting evangelism second and music first, as far back as 1994. These issues culminated in Klay Scott entirely abandoning the Christian music industry after the release of Disengage, a decision he explained at great extent in an interview with HM Magazine in 1998.