There’s something about Russian Circles that separates them from your average post-rock trio. Maybe it’s the fact that all three members (bassist Brian Cook, guitarist Mike Sullivan and drummer Dave Turncrantz) are capable of turning in brilliantly dynamic performances without upsetting the balance of the band, or perhaps they are just better songwriters than most of their contemporaries.
On ‘Memorial’, it is definitely a bit of both. This record is Russian Circles at their most elegiac, but it’s still uplifting. It’s Russian Circles at their heaviest and yet their most beautiful, at their cleverest and yet their most simplistic. Above all these things, though, this is a band still perfectly in tune with their greatest strengths despite taking on a whole host of new ideas with every release.
Opening subtly with the gentle, plucked acoustics of Memoriam, the album suddenly, jarringly, launches into the supreme heaviness of Deficit. The introduction is Russian Circles as we’ve never heard them before, drawing less from the crunchy Isis-esque side of the metal spectrum and more from the sheer sonic wall approach of Sleep or even Swans. It’s a blistering way to start a record.
Deficit is just the start of the journey, one that is propelled into hyperdrive by 1777. This track emphasises not only the exceptional talents of Cook, Sullivan and Turncrantz, but also their ability to weave in and out of one another’s playing.
There is something distinctly natural sounding about the trio in full flow, and this track is almost orchestral in its attention to detail. Sullivan flits across this seven minute epic with grace, providing not only one of the album’s most accessible riffs, but also a sense of divine structure in the place where most instrumental rock bands put unnecessarily complex time signatures.
In fact, if there’s one thing about ‘Memorial’ that sheds light on just how much Russian Circles have changed from their earliest releases, it’s the patience on offer. If ‘Enter’ and ‘Station’ were often the sound of a band in something of a hurry, and if ‘Geneva’ and ‘Empros’ were the band flexing their compositional muscles, then ‘Memorial’ is the sound of a band finding themselves perfectly capable of doing almost anything that they choose.
This, somewhat paradoxically, leads to the only real issue with ‘Memorial’. Cheyenne and Burial see the album briefly sag into a period where it feels slightly too comfortable in its own skin, during which it’s hard not to wish for a wholly inappropriate berserker Death Rides A Horse-style riff to break out of nowhere. Such a point is harsh in the extreme though. After all, to accuse a band of being almost too good is surely the highest praise.
When the title track (featuring the only vocals on the album from tour mate Chelsea Wolfe) fades the album out after just 40 minutes, pleasingly with the same gusts of sound that saw it open, it’s more than apparent just how much Russian Circles deserve such appreciation. Over five albums, this is a trio that have barely put a foot wrong, consistently delivering brilliant live performances throughout. Their journey continues, and this is another unmissable chapter along the way.
Thu October 24th 2013 - BRIGHTON The Haunt
Fri October 25th 2013 - MANCHESTER Gorilla
Sat October 26th 2013 - GLASGOW SWG3
Sun October 27th 2013 - DUBLIN Button Factory
Tue October 29th 2013 - LONDON Electric Ballroom
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