Russian Circles
Empros

The new release by Russian Circles, published by Sargent House in 2011, was recorded at Phantom Manos Studio in Chicago in April of the same year, produced and mixed, in addition to the Russian Circles, by Brandon Curtis, a member of Captain Audio and Secret Machines.

The trio, in its classic lineup of bass, guitar, and drums, offers an instrumental post rock/metal that is expansive and massive, less inclined to melody compared to "Geneva", their previous album. The CD opens with "309" (8.49') with its dry sound, piercing guitar marking the quarters, frequent dynamic changes, and a bass endowed with overwhelming, seismic distortion. The intro of "Mladek" (7.40') is entrusted to a guitar with delay effects, and the song develops into a driving groove with a psychedelic taste that flows into a final drone, linking to the next track "Schiphol" (6.16'), hypnotic with a cello arpeggio unfolding for over 3 minutes, supported by the guitar in feedback, leading to a stunning sonic detonation. "Atackla" (7.27') features an obsessive guitar arpeggio, a dry and cadenced snare sound in a claustrophobic crescendo; the guitars layer and here the Circles clearly reveal themselves to be more akin to bands like Isis or Neurosis than to certain forms of progressive metal like Pain of Salvation, as some critics have noted. "Bato" (6.17') is rarefied before exploding with energy, where the Circles’ songwriting displays a somewhat repetitive formula; the trio seems to favor a certain monolithic quality in tracks, losing the rhythmic variety that had inspired them up to Empros. The work concludes with "Praise Be Man" (4.34'), which presents for the first time in the Circles' production a vocal, with effects-laden, distant voices in a sort of floydian-derived lysergic litany.

In essence, "Empros" is a work in the band’s style, not particularly inspired but impactful, with, in my opinion, very beautiful sounds, harder than previous works, but perhaps precisely because of this roughness, very interesting and enjoyable.