Russian Circles Show Mercy In Geneva

We formally introduced you to the oddly named genre of post-rock with Mono’s Hymn To The Immortal Wind early this year. If you enjoyed that, or if you’re already a fan of the post-apocalyptic, often instrumental pseudoclass of metal, then you may want to pick up Russian Circles’ newest album, Geneva, coming on  October 20th.

My personal favorite of the Chicago three-piece’s three full-length albums remains their first, the viciously gorgeous Enter, but I can say that Geneva is at least as good as last year’s Station.

Overall, the songs are generally more succinct, and shorter; many even in the zip code of the ballpark of radio friendliness, length wise.

Not that you’ll hear any top forty station bumming anyone out with sludgy, long haired boulders such as the opening track Fathom. The track’s leading melody doesn’t show itself immediately, but rather is gradually carved out of a cacophony of noise that the track begins with. It may be under five minutes long, but you’ll still need a bit of an attention span to make it to the payoff. Of course, it wouldn’t be post-rock otherwise.

The title track is even more direct, driven by dueling gatling gun riffs from both guitarist Mike Sullivan as well as bassist Brian Cook, formerly of Botch and These Arms Are Snakes.

The following two tracks are not so gloomy and doomy, though Melee follows the trademark formula of building a track from slow and quiet gradually up to a thundering destruction, rebuilding it, and re-destroying it. When The Mountain Comes To Muhammad dabbles with this device to some extent as well, but for the most part, the post-rock cliché is used with extreme discretion, as it was on Station.

While I can appreciate the artistic decision to stray from the obvious build up / tear down template; the post-rock equivalent to nü-metal’s singing / screaming, or classic rock’s pentatonic scale solo, Russian Circles did it really well on Enter, and earned their right to the craft alongside bands like Neurosis and Red Sparowes. Listening to Geneva, I sometimes find myself wishing they didn’t think things through so much. Of course that’s always been a defining characteristic of the band, known for its painstakingly crafted albums. And I don’t mean to question a leopard’s spots. There’s just something to be said for viscera, and I think that’s the only thing missing from both Geneva, and Station to a lesser extent.

With that said, there is some interesting growth on the band’s newest. Lush strings on Melee are provided by Cellist Allison Chesley and violinist Susan Voelz. The stripped-down, nearly percussion-free Hexed All is a refreshing deviation as well.

Malko (streaming above) and Philos are memorably aggressive and macabre, with the latter traveling through an expansive clearing of beauty at the summit of a ten minute journey before spiraling downward.

Geneva is streaming right here in its entirety courtesy of Suicide Squeeze. While waiting for the official release on the 20th, be sure to pick up at least 2006’s Enter, and 2008’s Station as well, if you haven’t already.