Posted in Whathaveyou on December 15th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
The list of bands, quite frankly, is astonishing, but even more astonishing is the fact that Thief Presents‘ Psycho California 2015 (formerly Psycho de Mayo) hasn’t announced its headliners yet, because these sure as shit look like headliners to me.
A three-day festival set to take place at The Observatory in Santa Ana, CA, Psycho California will feature the following acts:
Here’s that list again: Kylesa, Om, Earth, Russian Circles, Orange Goblin, Bedemon, Conan, Indian, Pallbearer, Cave In, Old Man Gloom, Tombs, Earthless, Truckfighters, Bang, Eyehategod, Crowbar, SubRosa, Lord Dying, Acid Witch, Electric Citizen, Coffinworm, Eagle Twin, Stoned Jesus, Mammatus, True Widow, Bell Witch, Death by Stereo, Radio Moscow, Samsara Blues Experiment, Anciients, Elder, Mothership, Ancient Altar, The Well, Deathkings, Wo Fat, Rozamov, Destroyer of Light, Highlands, Bloodmoon, Slow Season, Crypt Trip, Lords of Beacon House, Tumbleweed Dealer, Sinister Haze, Blackout, Red Wizard, Banquet, Loom.
Plus interludes by Author and Punisher.
God damn.
Not only does it cover both coasts, huge bands, legends and up and comers, but the reach is international. Take special note of Conan, since their appearance means that Maryland Deathfest won’t be their only US date, and also Samsara Blues Experiment and Stoned Jesus — two killer European bands that you don’t even go after unless you know what the fuck you’re doing. That also hugely extends the possibilities for headlining acts. It’s an assemblage that’s beyond impressive, and if you haven’t already looked up flights to Southern California, I don’t know what to tell you. As I write this it’s after one in the morning on Sunday night, and you know I wouldn’t be doing that if my mind wasn’t leaking out of my ears at the thought of experiencing this thing.
Stay tuned for more to come, since as the poster says, headliners will be announced on Jan. 15. I’ll be looking forward to finding out who else is in store.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 12th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
Just days after announcing Anathema‘s special reunion set, Roadburn 2015 turns around and lets loose with another round of lineup additions, including Wovenhand headlining Thursday night — ask me about how they were the heaviest band I saw at the fest in 2011; I’d love to tell you all about it — and Enslaved and Wardruna each playing individual sets on top of their collaborative Skuggsja set. Russian Circles will also play, and Helms Alee with whom they’ll be on tour in Europe, and it’s kind of buried under all the other details, but some other killer acts have joined the bill as well.
Among those, an immediate standout is Uzala, whose “Tenement of the Lost” has been stuck in my head the last few days, with its glorious wash of feedback and the sweetly depressive melody that emerges therefrom. The thought of Argus taking stage at Roadburn is a thrill as well, and Tombstones, who released their Red Skies and Dead Eyes (review here) album last year, and Bell Witch and Eagle Twin and Sun Worship and even more than that. It’s an astounding and exciting bunch of acts.
I won’t delay any further. Dig in:
Wovenhand, Russian Circles, and more announced for Roadburn 2015; Enslaved and Wardruna unveil more show details
Roadburn is very pleased to announce Wovenhand, Russian Circles, Wardruna, and a second Enslaved performance among the latest additions to the 20th edition line up of the festival which will take place in April 2015.
Wovenhand and Russian Circles added to Thursday line up
Wovenhand’s incendiary performance at Roadburn 2011 remains one of the most talked-about shows in the festival’s history, and it’s a great pleasure to have David Eugene Edwards and his band back at the festival for what should be another thrilling, transformative concert. The band will reignite the 013 stage as the headline act on Thursday April 9.
Led by former 16 Horsepower frontman Edwards, Wovenhand similarly delves deep into the darker, more gothic side of Americana, only on a much more personal, introspective level. The latest album ‘Refractory Obdurate’ is the band’s most visceral work yet, with its heavier arrangements packing a devastating punch.
Already veterans of Roadburn, Chicago instrumental trio Russian Circles will return to the 20th edition of Roadburn Festival for a much anticipated main stage performance on Thursday, April 9, filling the main hall with their spacious, tonally lavish sound.
With a blend of post-rock airiness, heavy riffing and progressive rhythms, they are one of the most evocative instrumental bands in the underground today, and we at Roadburn couldn’t be more excited to welcome them back.
Roadburn curators confirm details of special performances
After a stunning sneak preview of the upcoming Enslaved album, we can only conclude that the band keeps blasting past their own and their associated genres’ limits. Listening to the album prompted us to invite the band for a second show at Roadburn 2015 on Saturday, April 11th, so that all of our beloved attendees can bask in the band’s creativity and talent, and share our excitement about what is sure to become another Enslaved classic.
We at Roadburn are huge admirers of Enslaved, thus it won’t have come as a suprise that we have invited their guitarist/composer, Ivar Bjornson, along with Einar Selvik (Wardruna), to curate the 20th edition of Roadburn Festival (a special event named ‘Houses of the Holistic’) on Friday, April 10 at the 013 venue.
Besides performing Skuggsjá, the sound of Norway’s Norse History, together with Wardruna, Enslaved will also perform a show dubbed ‘House of Northern Gods’, which will consist of a set list specially put together for ‘Houses of the Holistic’, featuring songs from the band’s entire catalogue that embody the Norse gods, with accompanying visuals created by revered Romanian artist, Costin Chioreanu.
“The Friday show during Roadburn 2015 will indeed be a special one”, says Ivar Bjørnson. “We have named the concert ‘House of Northern Gods’ and it will consist of a walk-through of an imaginary, magical house. It is a mental construction that could represent the mythological Valhalla with its inhabitants – or in Jung’s school of psychology: the archetypical roles of the human psyche. This will be the foundation for the set-list and the framework around the concert; there’s a stem of thematic songs from ‘Allfadr Odinn’ (the Paternal archetype) on ‘Hordanes Land’ in 1993 up to ‘Materal’ (the Maternal archetype) from 2012’s ‘RIITIIR’ where various characters/ roles in the ‘House of Northern Gods’ are represented and materialized into music. These are the songs that will make up the Friday show at Roadburn 2015!”
“As if it wasn’t a big enough honour to play one show at Roadburn 2015, we get to play a second show Saturday!” Ivar continues. “We are already hard at work with planning to turn these into the most spectacular two Enslaved shows possible, as we know that this double-Roadburn-whammy is not likely to happen again (we’ve heard of lightening striking twice, but thrice?). This second show will be one of the first European shows where we present our new album, that will be released something like a month prior to Roadburn 2015. We don’t like to brag; but be prepared for something monumental! We will also make use of the fact that Tilburg will be loaded to the brim with friends and colleagues at this point, so don’t be surprised if the show culminates in Enslaved having good friends on stage to make sure we go out with a blast! He who lives will see…
Ivar Bjornson’s fellow curator, Einar Selvik will also be performing with Wardruna in a special performance, dubbed ‘House of the Spinning Seer’. The winners of Metal Hammer’s Golden God award for Best Underground Band, will take to the stage on Friday 10th of April as another part of ‘Houses of the Holistic’.
“We are very excited as well as honored to be back to perform at Roadburn 2015″‘ says Einar “Kvitrafn” Selvik, “and so we plan to use this occasion to give the audience a concert out of the ordinary. It will be a Wardruna concert in an all-new form. With almost twice the amount of musicians that we normally have on stage our sonic threads of old and new shall be majestically spun and our soundscape carefully woven on the loom of the spinning seer.”
Argus, Bell Witch, Darkher, Eagle Twin, Helms Alee, Sun Worship, Terminal Cheesecake, Tombstones, Brimstone and Uzala have also been confirmed for the 20th edition of Roadburn Festival.
Curated by Ivar Bjørnson (Enslaved) and Wardruna‘s Einar “Kvitrafn” Selvik, Roadburn Festival 2015 (including Fields of the Nephilim, Anathema, Skuggsjá, Enslaved, Wardruna, Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin performing Dawn of The Dead and Susperia in its entirety, Zombi, Sólstafir, White Hills, Bongipper, Floor, Eyehategod and The Heads as Artist In Residence among others) will run from Thursday, April 9 to Sunday, April 12 at the 013 venue in Tilburg, The Netherlands.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 17th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
Even as Russian Circles are currently on a North American run that will see them touring into the middle of next month with support along the way from KENmode, Inter Arma and Helms Alee, the Chicago three-piece have plans ahead to head to Australia in the spring. Starting April 29, Russian Circles will begin a five-show stint of Aussie dates presented by Life is Noise supporting their 2013 LP, Memorial, which was released last fall on Sargent House.
From the other side of the planet, the PR wire speaks to you:
life is noise presents: RUSSIAN CIRCLES (USA) AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2014
Russian Circles return to Australia this April/May for shows in Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney in support of their latest masterwork Memorial.
Hailing from Chicago, the instrumental trio have been spent the last decade crafting their own niche atmospheric and entrancing take on heavy music, pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved with a guitar, bass, drums and lots of volume.
Last here in 2012 in support of their fourth LP, Empros, Russian Circles’ live show is something to behold. Brian Cook has one of the most visceral bass sounds you’ll ever hear. Guitarist Mike Sullivan is a master of the looping, building layer upon layer of dense riffs with what looks like effortless precision. Meanwhile, drummer Dave Turncrantz defines the mood, alternating between controlled precision and rhythmic chaos.
On their fifth record, Memorial, Russian Circles push the polarities of their sound, creating a record that’s as reflective as it is unsettling, and cementing the band’s position as legitimate peers of genre innovators like Isis and Neurosis. The valleys are deeper and the peaks higher, and with the addition of synthesizers and strings, the three-piece tap into the meditative territory explored by the likes of Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
See Russian Circles on the following dates:
Tuesday, April 29 – Crowbar – Brisbane Tickets from lifeisnoise.com, oztix and the venue.
Wednesday, April 30 – Fowler’s Live – Adelaide Tickets from lifeisnoise.com, venuetix, moshtix, oztix and the venue.
Thursday, May 1 – Hi Fi Bar – Melbourne Tickets from lifeisnoise.com, oztix and the venue.
Friday, May 2 – Rosemount Hotel – Perth Tickets from lifeisnoise.com, oztix and the venue.
Saturday, May 3 – Manning Bar – Sydney Tickets from lifeisnoise.com, oztix and the venue.
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 17th, 2013 by JJ Koczan
Call me crazy, but Russian Circles, KENmode and Inter Arma OR Russian Circles, KENmode and Helms Alee sounds like a pretty good bill. As we head into the snowy deadness of winter here in the Northeast — somebody get me more black metal, stat! — it’s good to have something like this Russian Circles February/March tour to look forward to. Yeah, it’ll still be cold as hell by the time they show up in this part of the world, but at least it’ll be a reason to leave the house — something that I suspect by then will be in pretty short supply.
Dig the news off the PR wire and Russian Circles‘ latest outing, Memorial,in full below:
Russian Circles announce U.S. tour dates in support of critically acclaimed new album Memorial
Chicago trio Russian Circles announce extensive U.S. headlining tour dates today beginning in February 2014 in support of their recently released fifth album Memorial. Ken Mode support on all shows with Inter Arma on the first portion and recent Sargent House signing Helms Alee on the latter leg of tour. Please see complete dates below.
Memorial is available on LP, CD and download via Sargent House, released on October 29th, 2013.
RUSSIAN CIRCLES TOUR 2014 02/04 Iowa City, IA @ Gabe’s Oasis # 02/05 St. Louis, MO @ The Firebird # 02/07 Austin, TX @ Red 7 # 02/08 Dallas, TX @ Club Dada # 02/09 Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s Upstairs # 02/10 New Orleans, LA @ The Parish @ House of Blues # 02/11 Tallahassee, FL @ Rehab # 02/12 Orlando, FL @ Will’s Pub # 02/13 Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum # 02/14 Birmingham, AL @ WorkPlay Theatre # 02/15 Atlanta, GA @ The Earl # 02/17 Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle # 02/18 Washington DC @ The Rock and Roll Hotel # 02/19 Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts # 02/20 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom # 02/21 Cambridge, MA @ The Middle East Downstairs # 02/22 Brooklyn, NY @ Saint Vitus # 02/23 Pittsburgh, PA @ Altar Bar # 02/24 Cleveland Heights, OH @ Grog Shop # 02/25 Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig # 02/27 Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock Social Club # 02/28 Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room # 03/01 Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre # 03/02 Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge # 03/03 Boise, ID @ Neurolux # 03/04 Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s * 03/05 Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom * 03/07 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall * 03/09 San Diego, CA @ The Casbah * 03/10 Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre * 03/12 Phoenix, AZ @ The Crescent Ballroom * 03/13 Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad * 03/14 Oklahoma City, OK @ The Conservatory * 03/15 Kansas City, MO @ The Record Bar * 03/16 Chicago, IL @ Metro *
# w/ Ken Mode, Inter Arma * w/ Helms Alee, Ken Mode
Posted in Buried Treasure on December 3rd, 2013 by JJ Koczan
“What the hell are you going to do with those?” asked The Patient Mrs. when I got back to the car and showed her the two Black Sabbath 8-track tapes I’d bought at the annual “Not Just” Rock Expo outside of Philadelphia this past Friday afternoon. It was a fair question. My answer was somewhat less reasoned: “Set up an altar and worship them as gods, who fucking cares?”
My point, expressed with my usual eloquence, was that it wasn’t about listening to Heaven and Hell and Sabbath‘s 1970 self-titled debut — which I can do at this point on any number of physical media — but just about enjoying owning the albums on this format. And hell, if I wind up with an 8-track player someday, at least I’ll know what to put on first. Whether that came through or not, I was greeted with the usual rolled eyes and a, “Time to go.” Fair enough. We were already running late.
This was the 27th “Not Just” Rock Expo — it’s actually put together by the same dude who does the Second Saturday Record Show in Wayne, NJ, that I’ve enjoyed many times in the past — and it just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Held in Oaks, PA, which is northwest of Philly, this past Friday and Saturday, normally, it’d be well out of my geographic range at this point for a day trip, but The Patient Mrs. and I (also the little dog Dio) spent Thanksgiving in Maryland. Friday found us heading back north to see family in New Jersey, so the “Not Just” Rock Expo was more or less on the way, and that’s just how I sold The Patient Mrs. on the idea of making a stop.
The GPS took us what felt like halfway across PA, but we got there eventually and found the hangar-sized room where the expo was happening. Three long, two-sided rows of vendors were set up, and there was a good crowd there. I recognized a few faces from shows and such, and while it might not have been just rock, there certainly was enough of it. It seemed like almost every table, save perhaps that run by King Fowley of Deceased, had one or another kind of Beatles memorabilia on offer, but there were plenty of other ways to spend money as well. More money than I had, but I did alright. The first place I looked had Death‘s Individual Thought Patterns on tape for like two bucks, so I made that happen, and an original Alternative Tentacles pressing of Neurosis‘ Souls at Zerothat I’ve very much enjoyed revisiting despite a skip or two in “The Web,” as well as Death in 3s by Meatplow, which I picked up essentially because I recognized the name and thought it would be fun. So far that’s worked out.
Across the aisle was a vendor who had an entire section devoted solely to Repertoire Records reissues. Fuck me. But for the ones I already owned, I probably could’ve shelled out $300 on that stuff alone and walked out of the “Not Just” Rock Expo with a smile on my face. I didn’t. Money’s tight, and sooner or later I’d have to buy gas to get back up to Massachusetts, so I nabbed the digipak version of Atomic Rooster‘s In Hearing Ofand left it at that. By then, The Patient Mrs. had adjourned to the car, but I made my way through at what was apparently a leisurely place — when it was over, I seemed to have lost an extra hour in there somewhere — finding other odds and ends along the way like a Nuclear Blast edition of the first Count Raven CD, a full-jewel-case promo (imagine such a thing!) for Russian Circles‘ debut, Enter, and a cheap tape copy of Band of Gypsysthat made the rest of the ride to Jersey a little easier to take, despite traffic.
Toward the end of the last row, a guy who had some other decent stuff as well was selling a copy of the 2007 split between Sons of Otis and Queen Elephantine for $20. I wanted it. I was decently enough past my spending limit, however, so I offered the $13 in my hand, he said no, and I put the disc back. The one that got away. More the fool I, since I can’t seem to find the CD version online anywhere. That’ll show me not to recklessly shell out dollars.
It was a downer note to end on, but overall, I can’t really complain. I hadn’t even known the “Not Just” Rock Expo existed until reading a post about it Thanksgiving night on Thee Facebooks, so considering that and the tri-format haul, I’d say I did alright. They’ve already got the space booked for the 28th installment of the “Not Just” Rock Expo (their website is here), and if you happen to be in the area, it seems like a good way to make yourself late to wherever you might be headed next.
Queen Elephantine, “The Battle of Massacoit/The Weapon of the King of Gods”
Posted in Bootleg Theater on November 30th, 2013 by JJ Koczan
Russian Circles, Enter (2006)
This morning I was in Maryland. Tonight I’m in Jersey. If all goes according to plan, by tomorrow night at this time, I’ll be back in Massachusetts. Nothing like the holidays to emphasize mobility. Mileage on my old Volvo is up past 187,750. I should break 188,000 before the weekend is out.
On the way north today, I stopped off at the “Not Just” Rock Expo in Pennsylvania. Huge record show I knew literally nothing about until late last night. I’ll post more about it next week — holy shit there’s a lot coming next week — but I found some cool stuff across a range of formats. A jewel case promo for the 2006 Russian Circles debut full-length, Enter, was one of the finds, and as I popped it in while I rolled through the nether regions of Lancaster County, PA, it’s been in my head since. It was a blast to see them at Radio City Music Hall earlier this year. Very cool in that cavernous space.
So yeah, next week. First of all, at some point tomorrow I’ll post an artwork reveal for the Bong Cauldron record. Something I’d usually do today, but it’s already close to one in the morning and I drove like five hours today and when I landed did family stuff, so really just about every sentence at this point is a ramble and, I suspect, wildly incoherent. Tomorrow. Then Monday the 2013 Readers Poll goes up. That’s always a huge amount of fun and I’m so nerdily excited for it that I almost feel bad about myself for it. So stoked though.
Look out for a review of Mollusk, a Qosmic Qey tape, some Tia Carrera vinyl (and maybe other vinyl as well), a full stream of a new split between Black Shape of Nexus and Lazarus Blackstar, and if I can muster the energy, I’m hoping to come back south from Massachusetts to Brooklyn for a couple shows toward the end of the week. Mountain God and The Golden Grass are playing on successive nights. Not promising on that, because I’m old and tired and old and also tired, but if I can I’ll make it happen. Also details on that record show I was at today — saw a few familiar faces there as well — and a lot more news and whatever else comes down the wire. It’s gonna be a good time. I know that much.
But for this evening, I’m about done. I hope you dig the Russian Circles and I hope you have a great and safe weekend. Please if you get the chance, check out the forum and the radio stream.
Posted in Reviews on March 18th, 2013 by JJ Koczan
It had been four weeks since I’d last seen a show, and for lack of better phrasing, I was out of my fucking mind. Not that nothing had rolled through in that time — there’d been plenty of opportunities to get out — my mental and physical energy was occupied elsewhere. But when my weekend calendar seemed to be open just in time to catch Russian Circles at Radio City Music Hall, it was too cool an opportunity to pass up.
I mean, Russian Circles are a good band, but they’re still basically an underground act. Instrumental post-rock? The ads plastered up around the place were for people like Mike Tyson and Leonard Cohen. Even Coheed and Cambria, who were headlining the show, seemed like a stretch to me. I always thought of that as the kind of place you had to be Elton John before you could play. At very least James Taylor. Russian Circles you’d expect at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, or if you had to keep it in Manhattan, the Bowery Ballroom. To catch them at Radio City — in a place that big, in front of what would still be thousands of people even though they’d just be filing in at the time — seemed pretty special.
Even for that, the show was something of a departure for me. Usually, one idolizes seeing a bigger band at a smaller place — see any number of shows Brooklyn’s St. Vitus bar has put on in the last year-plus — so this, seeing a known but still relatively underground act at what’s indisputably a major venue, took the opposite route toward being an exception. Generally speaking, I don’t like big venues, big venue shows or big venue bands, but like I say, it had been four weeks and though there was other stuff going on I could’ve hit up, Russian Circles struck me as the one to catch.
It was the last night of a 28-date run, Russian Circles supporting Between the Buried and Me and Coheed and Cambria, though there was little of the end-of-tour pranking that I’d seen at Enslaved‘s recent Manhattan gig. Just as well, since Russian Circles essentially play in the dark and so any shenanigans might not have been seen by the crowd anyway, not to mention the heads-down-locked-in feel they have on stage. Before they went on, Coheed and Cambria‘s Claudio Sanchez and someone who appeared to be his wife, Chondra Echert-Sanchez, came out and did an acoustic, poppy take on “2’s My Favorite 1,” which apparently isn’t the teenybopper hit the title might imply, but a track of Coheed‘s latest album, Afterman: The Descension, released just at the start of the tour.
As someone who’s never even come close to being a Coheed and Cambria fan, I could’ve cared less, but the crowd, still milling in at the time — just about 7PM — went off, cell phones in the air to get the video. When the song was over, the Sanchezes said thanks and split on the quick and a couple minutes later, Russian Circles emerged, their stage lit by two single lightbulbs on either side — one in front of guitarist Mike Sullivan, one under the keyboard of bassist Brian Cook — and two floodlights behind drummer Dave Turncrantz. Last time I saw the band was in 2008 opening for Clutch‘s New Year’s tour at Starland Ballroom — not their crowd — so I knew they kept the lighting minimal, but at a place the size of Radio City, it was all the more accented, the shadows as expansive as the hall itself.
Russian Circles only played four songs, but in that time gave a fair sampling of their catalog. From 2008’s Stationcame opener “Harper Lewis,” followed by the title-track from 2009’s Geneva, which led into “Mlàdek,” the gallop-happy highlight from 2011’s Empros(review here), and from 2006’s debut, Enter, the closer “Death Rides a Horse.” For most of their time, I was up front taking pictures — a “first three songs” rule for a four-song set gave me a chuckle — so apart from having to crouch down in front of the stage, it probably wasn’t all that different from seeing them in a smaller room, but once I shuffled back to my seat for the duration of “Death Rides a Horse,” the sense of space really set in.
The three of them on the stage looked like they were playing in the mouth of some prehistoric megawhale. Their tones — Sullivan playing Verellen amps through Emperor cabinets, lest there should be any doubts of their dueling Chicago/Seattle origins — were full, but running through a house P.A. at what I don’t doubt was a don’t-be-louder-than-the-headliner level, so as I pulled my earplugs partially out to get a better listen, it was Turncrantz‘s snare that cut through most prominent. That said, Russian Circles managed to be ambient at Radio City Music Hall, a place scientifically engineered for acoustics but not for a wash of sound, and that seemed like a triumph. At very least, a hell of a way to end a tour.
Empros was by far the freshest on my mind of their material, so I was glad to catch “Mlàdek,” and their demeanor fit the mood of the material. There was no showy thrashing around, no arena-rock foot-on-the-monitor posturing. Russian Circles, apart from being older and perhaps more suspendered in the case of Cook, were much as I remembered them, which I was glad to see considering how it seemed to work for them last time around and on their lush studio work. They finished and said goodnight with as little ceremony as they’d walked out onto the dim stage, and I split likewise shortly thereafter.
It was not yet 8PM when I got back to my car. Probably I could’ve stayed and watched Between the Buried and Me or Coheed and Cambria, but yeah, no. I left the city like I was getting away with something. The Patient Mrs. and I went out to a late(r) dinner and still got to enjoy a decent portion of the evening, and I exhaled for what felt like the first time in two weeks, worried much less that my brain was going to explode for not having been out in so long, so on the existential and practical levels, this one was a win. Took an odd route to get there, but it got there, anyway.
Extra pics after the jump. Special thanks to Dave Clifford for making this happen and to you for reading.
Posted in Reviews on October 21st, 2011 by JJ Koczan
For their fourth album, Empros (first directly for Sargent House), the instrumental three-piece Russian Circles returned to producer Brandon Curtis of The Secret Machines, who also helmed 2009’s Geneva. The reasons why are fairly obvious: What the Chicago outfit was able to accomplish with Geneva was their most formidable blend yet of ambience and post-metallic heft, and for the sheer sounds Curtis was able to capture from guitarist Mike Sullivan, bassist Brian Cook (also ex-Botch/These Arms are Snakes) and drummer Dave Turncrantz, their wanting to recreate at least that element of the Geneva experience is well justified. That said, Empros and Geneva are different enough albums that, even without vocals as the latest is – except for the psychedelic lullaby closer “Praise be Man” – it becomes clear Russian Circles approached the construction of these songs with something altogether heavier in mind. It’s not so much that their tones have changed, though right from opener “309,” there’s a lot riding on the sometimes Godfleshy and mechanized feel of Cook’s bass, but the way the material is put together. Where some of Geneva’s ambience was allowed to wander, the six tracks of Empros are less so, so that even when the heaviness breaks into a stretch of indie-infused airy atmospherics, loops and long-ringing tones, there’s a pointedness and direction to them.
Likewise, when Russian Circles do launch into one of the crunching parts through which they’ve helped innovate post-metal instrumentalism, they sound heavier than they ever have. Four albums in, they also know how to make that work to their advantage. Both “309” and “Mlàdek,” which follows, build to stunning apexes, the later propelled by a galloping riff worthy of YOB but played faster and still cut too short. The second track has a kind of pop drama in its earlier stretch, with Turncrantz setting an upbeat pace and playing well off Sullivan’s cues. The name reportedly comes from their bus driver on their European tour for Geneva, and it’s one of the most discernible structures on Empros, twice repeating a section cycle before launching into the build that comprises the aforementioned second half. A lot of what Russian Circles do on Empros will sound familiar to heads who’ve watched post-metal come of age, and while it probably won’t change too many minds who are either sick of the sound or bemoaning the inevitable sacrifice of crushing sonics that comes with ambience, Russian Circles have grown into a band who not only can manage both, but who helped bring the subgenre to what it is. I’d include the likes of Red Sparowes and fellow Chicagoans Pelican in this as well, the latter perhaps most of all, but Russian Circles have consistently managed to concoct solid matter from distant waves of sound. The added transitional elements they bring to Empros only show an increase in overall focus and maturity in how they think about their work on a larger scale.
