RUSSIAN CIRCLES Blood Year
SARGENT HOUSE Chicago’s instru-metal mavens take an emotional tour of their homeland
If GUIDANCE, the previous album by this Chicago instrumental trio, was written during a time of questioning and tumult, then one would expect Blood Year to crackle with frustration and incendiary anger. Guidance was constructed and completed in the shadow of the 15-year-old band wondering about their longevity and future as well as at the beginning of the most ridiculous era in their nation’s politics. However, after 12 tours (!) in support of that album, Blood Year could presumably either reflect the ire of those Americans with common sense and compassion, or take a 180° turn to take a step back from the brink of exhaustion.
The result of the band’s seventh album falls somewhere near the mid-point of those concentric circles. Opener Hunter Moon oscillates into being with layers of plinking and plucked guitars before the hardcharged, mountainous post-metal of Arluck asserts itself into the heaviest corners of the Russian Circles discography. Its thunderous tribal drums and bass distortion are akin to Swedish death metal, driving glistening reverb and gossamer-coated walls of sound rooted in the Neur-Isis tradition. A melodic edge pushes harder into the indie-speckled Milano and Kohokia, which builds and soars towards a stunning crescendo reminiscent of a collision between bassist Brian Cook’s former band, Botch, and one of the most revered postrock records of all time, Slint’s Spiderland. The second half sees more measured tones seeping in with Ghost On High approximating electric folk of the sort that
Bob Dylans fans would have rioted over in the 60s and Sinaia, calmly meandering before a concluding perk-up via the pulsing, downpicked crunch of Quartered.
Russian Circles’ ace in the hole is their ability to express mood and passion without vocals and here it’s been pushed to a level in which a wide swathe of sound represents an appropriately wide swathe of emotion.
FOR FANS OF: Pelican, Slint, Wear Your Wounds