There comes a moment in many a heavy rock band’s career when the time feels right to turn back toward the music that made them, to set aside original composition for a while and pay tribute to the artists whose work first lit the fire, to wrestle with the songs that shaped a musical identity and discover what happens when you make them your own. Circle of Stone, the Atlanta-based powerhouse trio of Russell Stewart and Joe Garmon and JR Mysterion, reached exactly this moment, and Covered in Stone, released May 29, 2026, is the passionate tribute that resulted, six faithful yet uniquely styled reproductions of deeper cuts from the legendary artists who built the foundation of heavy rock. This is a labor of love arriving just six months after the band’s critically acclaimed second LP Ghosts of Tomorrow, a covers EP made by a band firing on all cylinders at the peak of their creative powers.
The choice to cover deeper cuts rather than the obvious hits is the first sign that Covered in Stone is a genuine labor of love rather than a calculated commercial exercise. Any band can cover the famous songs that everyone already knows, but reaching into the catalogs of the masters for the deeper tracks reflects a real connoisseur’s appreciation, the kind of devotion that distinguishes between the surface familiarity of the casual fan and the deep knowledge of the true believer. Circle of Stone clearly belong to the latter category, and their selection of cuts from Metallica and Deep Purple and ZZ Top and Thin Lizzy and Black Sabbath and Judas Priest demonstrates a discerning understanding of these legendary catalogs that goes far beyond the greatest hits.
The EP opens with Jailbreak, the Thin Lizzy classic that captures everything that made that band one of the most beloved in hard rock history. Thin Lizzy possessed a unique combination of swagger and melody and twin-guitar harmony, and the song’s narrative of escape and rebellion is the kind of material that Circle of Stone can sink their teeth into while honoring the distinctive character of the original. The interpretation gives the band a chance to demonstrate their command of the hard rock fundamentals while stamping the song with their own identity, the tribute to Thin Lizzy serving as a strong opening statement for an EP devoted to the masters.
Cornucopia follows, drawing from the deep well of Black Sabbath, one of the most foundational bands in the entire history of heavy music. As a deeper cut from the Sabbath catalog, Cornucopia allows Circle of Stone to engage with the dark and heavy and genuinely innovative material that established the template for heavy metal itself, the song’s crushing riffs and ominous atmosphere being part of the DNA that Circle of Stone and countless other heavy bands inherited. To cover Sabbath is to engage directly with the origins of the genre, and the band’s willingness to take on a deeper cut rather than one of the obvious anthems reflects their serious commitment to honoring the full depth of Sabbath’s contribution.
Turbo Lover brings the Judas Priest influence into the collection, drawing from one of the most important and most influential bands in the development of heavy metal. Priest brought a particular combination of speed and precision and theatrical grandeur to the genre, and Turbo Lover, with its driving momentum and its distinctive character, gives Circle of Stone the opportunity to demonstrate their command of the more polished and propulsive end of the heavy rock spectrum. The Priest influence is one of the most significant in all of metal, and the tribute reflects the band’s understanding of how much the genre owes to the masters of the twin-guitar metal attack.
Precious and Grace, one of the EP’s standout tracks, draws from early ZZ Top, the period when the Texas trio were at their bluesy and gritty best before their later commercial transformation. This is a particularly inspired choice, the early ZZ Top material representing some of the finest blues-rock ever recorded, and Circle of Stone’s decision to cover from this era reflects their appreciation for the deep roots of heavy rock in the blues. The song allows the band to demonstrate their command of the bluesy and groove-driven side of their influences, and its identification as a standout track suggests that Circle of Stone found something special in their interpretation, honoring the early ZZ Top sound while bringing their own character to it.
The fifth track carries the EP’s most playful title, listed as Bassically Black Night, a clever reworking of the Deep Purple classic Black Night that the parenthetical suggests gives prominence to the bass. Deep Purple are one of the foundational bands of hard rock, their work in the early seventies helping to define the heavy rock template, and Black Night is a genuine classic of the form. The Bassically prefix is one of the clever easter eggs that the band has included throughout the EP for dedicated listeners to discover, suggesting an arrangement that foregrounds the bass in a way the original did not, the kind of inventive reinterpretation that distinguishes a thoughtful cover from a mere reproduction. This willingness to play with the arrangements while honoring the songs reflects the balance between faithfulness and originality that defines the entire EP.
Devil’s Dance, the other standout track, closes the collection with a Metallica cover, drawing from the most commercially successful and one of the most influential metal bands of all time. As a deeper cut from the Metallica catalog, Devil’s Dance allows Circle of Stone to engage with the more atmospheric and menacing side of Metallica’s work, and its identification as a standout suggests that the band found a particularly effective way to honor the original while stamping it with their own DNA. Closing the EP with Metallica brings the tribute into more recent metal history, the band acknowledging both the foundational influences of the seventies and the modern metal titans who carried the tradition forward.
The recording process behind Covered in Stone reflects the band’s commitment to their craft regardless of geographical boundaries, with instrumentals laid down at JEC studio in the deep south of the USA and vocals tracked at REC studio in the north of England. This transatlantic recording approach, the music captured in the American south and the vocals in the north of England before mixing back in the US, demonstrates the band’s dedication to making the EP work despite the distance separating its members, the songs coming together remarkably quickly across several weeks of work across the Atlantic. As a three-piece, Circle of Stone played all the parts themselves, the trio handling the full range of instrumentation required to do justice to the rich arrangements of the originals.
The standout quality of Covered in Stone is the balance it strikes between faithfulness and originality, the band honoring their influences while stamping each song with unmistakable Circle of Stone DNA. This is the hardest thing for a covers project to achieve, the temptation being either to reproduce the originals so faithfully that the band’s own identity disappears or to reinterpret them so drastically that the tribute loses its connection to the source. Circle of Stone navigate this balance with skill, the reproductions faithful enough to honor the masters and original enough to reflect the band’s own character, the easter eggs and clever touches like the Bassically Black Night arrangement adding the personal stamp that makes the EP more than a simple reproduction.
The band describes Covered in Stone with characteristic modesty as simply an album of covers that many bands in their genre make at some point in their careers, that it was just their time to put one together, and they note that they had a lot of fun making it and that their fans really enjoyed these versions. This unpretentious attitude is part of the EP’s charm, the project being a genuine celebration of the music the band loves rather than a calculated artistic statement, the fun of making it audible in the energy of the performances.
Covered in Stone is Circle of Stone’s heartfelt thank-you to the masters who shaped them, six deep cuts from the legends of heavy rock reproduced with faithfulness and originality and genuine love. From Thin Lizzy to Metallica, from Black Sabbath to ZZ Top, the EP honors the foundations of the genre while demonstrating that Circle of Stone have earned their place in the lineage they celebrate.
The masters built the house, and Circle of Stone have moved in with respect and with their own unmistakable style. Covered in Stone is the sound of a band paying its dues and having a blast doing it.
