Circle of Crows: Flesh and Bone EP

Circle of Crows: Flesh and Bone brings together the first two chapters of the Circle of Crows story, combining Flesh Eater and Bone Eater into a single account of the group's origins, beliefs, transformation, and eventual descent into violence. The story begins inside the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia, where the first chapter introduces a secretive rural Pennsylvania cult whose beliefs center around ritual, sacrifice, and the collection of bones from those said to have "wandered without purpose."

According to a handwritten note reportedly left by P&B Fortezza Records chief executive Salvatore De Luca, Jacobs delivered master tapes containing three completed EPs less than 24 hours after the release of Red Leather Kiss. Flesh Eater is presented as a confession attributed to the Circle's leader, with each composition revealing another stage of the group's development. "2 Slaves" depicts the selection of its first victims, "Boiler Room" descends into the group's hidden rituals, and "Altar of Bones" introduces the belief that an ancient bird-like spirit has chosen the Circle to collect the bones of those who have lost their way.

The story then moves backward through the group's history in Bone Eater, revealing the people who eventually became its members. Recorded over 72 hours across three locations, the sessions began with "Organ Grinder" at Whitegate Cemetery in Moundsville, West Virginia, continued with "Black Feathers" at Lookout State Park in Scotland, Maryland, and concluded with "Plastic People" at Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia.

The locations were reportedly selected for their associations with death, tragedy, and isolation. At Whitegate Cemetery, a local journalist observed three unidentified individuals standing silently beside a black 1988 GMC Vandura, each holding a lit candle while recording equipment was prepared nearby. Conversations among the group reportedly suggested that Point Lookout Lighthouse was chosen for its connection to Civil War prison camps and documented deaths. P&B Fortezza vice president Enzo Belladonna later attributed the unusual circumstances surrounding Jacobs' work to his constant movement and unrestricted imagination.

Within Bone Eater, "Black Feathers" depicts the fate of the Circle's victims after death, describing a place "worse than hell" where suffering continues indefinitely. "Organ Grinder" provides the group's justification, portraying its violence as the consequence of years spent abandoned by a society that allowed its members to "rot." The final track, "Plastic People," reveals the lives that existed before the Circle. Through an upbeat 1980s-style Synthpop arrangement, its members are portrayed as homeless, isolated young people repeatedly treated as inconveniences rather than human beings. The implication is that the Circle was not born from evil alone, but from prolonged abandonment that gradually transformed neglect into violence.

Together, the two chapters reveal the Circle of Crows as a clandestine "bone eating" cleanup crew acting in the name of Satan, while gradually exposing the beliefs and circumstances that shaped its members. Yet the recording sessions themselves eventually become as mysterious as the story being told. After the Bone Eater sessions concluded in Philadelphia, an anonymous journalist accompanying Jacobs was reportedly given a live crow inside a small cage and left alone at The Club Quarters Hotel. Communication with The Dead Broken Heart and P&B Fortezza Records subsequently ceased, despite the journalist's return trip to West Virginia having already been paid for.

No explanation was ever provided for the bird, the sudden silence, or the identities of the three people associated with the black van. Circle of Crows: Flesh and Bone ultimately presents the first half of the Circle of Crows story as a fragmented account of a group transformed by abandonment into violence, while leaving the circumstances surrounding its recordings almost as unresolved as the fate of the people within the story.