AlbumsRussian Circles || Empros
Russian Circles
Empros
Label: Sargent House
Release date: Oct 25th, 2011
Rating: 4 out of 5 Meatballs
Reviewed by: Pawl Schwartz
The only complaint I ever had about this band was the insane amount of time they would play for live, even when they were not the headliner. But the fact that this album only has six tracks should tell you that they have found a way to streamline, even if the songs they are becoming more choosy about are still ten minutes long.
There's even a NIN's The Fragile-style big guitar part in the closing strains of "Mladek." Instrumental bands should be all about the music, about expanding their sound so much that you forget about the need for a vocalist. Russian Circles have always gotten close to the mark, but I don't think that they've had it in spades till this album.
The dynamics are similar to most of the their work, however — the loud riffing interspersed with introspective brooding chords and humming sustain. These tricks can get a tad old, even with odd time signatures.
The bassist Brian Cook of Botch fame has obviously picked up some skills though (or unleashed old ones). From the sound of it, they are the kind of riffs that made Botch stand out. I think it just took some time away from Botch for him to really want to explore that sound again. He comes through hard and aggressive with a well-tweaked overdrive punching out notes on the latter half of "309." That means that this band is finally learning how to find the complexity in simplicity, rather than just showing off. This is exactly how an instrumental band should be: knowledgeable in minute distinctions like that one so that the music can be interesting and speak volumes on its own, even say more complex things than a singer ever could. Songs like "Maldek" with its two & four heavy heave speak volumes towards this band's vision, talent, and future. Grab this, blast it, and add a new metal talent to your list of bands to watch. They won't be relatively unknown for much longer.
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