Husker Du's Metal Circus mini-album is a transitional work, bridging the gap between their hit-and-miss debut Everything Falls Apart and their psychedelic Hardcore masterpiece Zen Arcade. For fans like me who came to Husker Du through their later albums first, Metal Circus is a far less shocking release than the two albums between which it is sandwiched. While Bob Mould's songs still fit into the Hardcore genre, they have come on a step from the throwaway thrash of "Bricklayer" or "Punch Drunk", incorporating more prominent melodies into the raw rage. But Metal Circus is best remembered for drummer Grant Hart's haunting "Diane", easily the highlight and the moment when Hart really showed that he was developing into a songwriter to be reckoned with.

While he was not writing disposable 30 second snippets anymore, Mould sometimes seems to be struggling on Metal Circus, torn between emphasising his melodies and simply rocking out like crazy. Metal Circus was originally conceived as the full length 11 track follow up to Everything Falls Apart and it is perhaps Mould's uncertainty that lead to it being cut down to a mini-album. Happily, Mould would resolve his tentativeness in spectacular style with Zen Arcade on which he triumphantly found a way to have the best of both worlds. In the meantime, however, there's no escaping the shortcomings of tracks like "Lifeline" and "Out on a Limb". The weaknesses in these tracks are further highlighted by the fact that they appear either side of Hart's excellent "Diane". "Lifeline" and "Out on a Limb" both find Mould clinging very tightly to his Hardcore roots. Since they follow on from the more melodic, forward-thinking Mould tracks from earlier in the record, this pair of lesser efforts emerge sounding like little more than stubborn retreads.

The duo of Mould's opening tracks are a different story entirely however. Kicking things off with real force and energy, "Real World" and "Deadly Skies" are both classy pieces of Hardcore that incorporate a subtle shift in style toward the more tuneful. "Real World" in particular features some impressive guitar work, something that would come to characterise Mould's work. Lyrically, in typical Husker Du style, this pair of tracks challenge the listener to look beyond the stereotype punk values being bandied about by so many below par bands and bandwagon jumpers. "Real World" questions the point of arbitrary anarchy and rule breaking as political statement while "Deadly Skies" asks what the point of protesting is when the bigger issues like war are completely beyond our control. Political songs are rare in the Husker Du canon so it seems a little odd that Metal Circus opens with two of them but, whatever your beliefs (for the record, I don't really agree with the idea behind "Deadly Skies"), these are both fine songs and a great way to open the record.

"It's Not Funny Anymore", the first of two Grant Hart tracks, is a smoother, poppier track which acts as a good foil for the raging Mould tracks, lyrically as well as musically. "It's Not Funny Anymore" is basically as very simple plea for people to just be themselves, regardless of what they are told by others. After Mould's rants, Hart offers a more democratic viewpoint: "Find out who you really are and don't pay any attention to me". "It's Not Funny Anymore" is a sweet, reasonably catchy pop song which pales in comparison to the band's best work but it breaks up the heavier material and further demonstrates the band's changing style towards something more accessible. Similarly, "First of the Last Calls" is a minor work in Mould's canon which nevertheless proves an enjoyable distraction, a brighter take on the Hardcore sound.

But Metal Circus undoubtedly reaches its peak with Hart's "Diane", a terrifying song based on the real life murder of waitress Diane Edwards in 1980. In the song, Hart assumes the role of Diane's killers, delivering the verses in a laidback, conversational style which is at odds with the lyrical subject matter. The chillingly blunt "We could cruise down Robert Street all night long but I think I'll just rape you and kill you instead" is a genuinely shocking moment. The chorus consists of the repetition of Diane's name in an evermore anguished wail. One of the reasons "Diane" is so alarming is the juxtaposition of moods. The music is a churning wash of punk noise, never once betraying the dark themes that await in the lyrics. The song was covered and made into a top 30 hit by Therapy?, who arranged it on a sombre cello. While this cover version is impressive, it sucks some of the power out of the original by creating an appropriately dark tone which alerts the listener to the imminent evil before a word has been uttered. When Therapy?'s Andrew Cairns intones "I think I'll just rape you and kill you instead" in a doom laden baritone it sounds almost comic. When Grant Hart spits the line out as if it were an everyday piece of dialogue, it sounds eerily like the actual words of an emotionally detached murderer.

While it was ahead of its time and is a largely enjoyable listen, Metal Circus has not aged as well as most of Husker Du's work. It frequently sounds like a band who are unsure where to take their music, resulting in some tracks that remain stuck in their Hardcore past and others that try to move things forward so tentatively that the results can't help but be underwhelming. Apart from Mould's one-two opening punch and Hart's "Diane", there's nothing especially worthy of note here. That said, these three tracks are well worth the effort of tracking down, "Diane" especially. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Metal Circus is that it was the one and only release on which Mould let his guard down enough for Hart to completely steal the show.