Russian Circles - Gnosis
Russian Circles
Gnosis
By: Nate Cross
Russian Circles have become one of sludge metal's biggest powerhouses without ever uttering a vocal melody.
The instrumental trio of Brian Cook, Mike Sullivan, and Dave Turncrantz have a formula they stick to because it works: play loud and don't be fancy. It's a system that's made their previous records enjoyable yet aggressively noisy and lyric-less.
Lucky for their fans, the band hasn't changed a thing on their newest record, Gnosis, where they're as stark and grim as ever.
Brian Cook's signature bass tone furiously kicks off the record —sounding as if he's chiseling away at the stone wall of noise on the opener "Tupilak."
The guitars are densely layered but not too overpowering. You can still hear each instrument brood through the song's doomy yet enchanting arrangement. The abrupt switches from beautifully quiet to grimly treacherous make it one of the most dynamic tracks on the record.
Russian Circles continue to weave these two worlds together, with some tracks doing it better than others.
The title track, "Gnosis," does it in a different style, but still in as grand of fashion. Rather than going through multiple changes throughout the song, it starts out like a quiet, cultish hymn whose elements build to conjure the thunderous and apocalyptic outro.
However, the closing track, "Bloom," defined back and forth from ethereal to upliftingly heavy - sounds too commercial and familiar. Maybe it could have worked on a collaboration between Deafheaven and Explosions in the Sky, but not on the cruel landscape of Gnosis.
The real triumph of the record is when Russian Circles are focused on being as heavy as possible for an entire song's length.
The slow trudge on "Vlastimil" will likely please stoner metal fans, while the straightforward chugging gallop of "Conduit" will surely be a favorite for hardcore headbangers. The band makes no room for flare in the brutal four and a half minutes, only riffs sludgy enough to erode a 1000-ft rock face.
"O Braonain" acts as a calming interlude before the band completely unleashes black metal chaos on "Betrayal." The blast beats and ascending riffs make it sound inherently evil - the only thing that would push it over the line into true purist territory would be classic black metal vocals.
Even though it would be a pleasant surprise to hear a vocal feature here, Russian Circles don't need a singer decked out in corpse paint to sound demonic; they're more than capable on their own.
One of Russian Circles best qualities is that they're an instrumental band who aren't trying to send their listeners into mental anguish. There's no riffage that sounds like it was written to impress guitar virtuosos. There aren't time signatures so complex that you'll have to restart the song to figure out what's happening.
Even though there are slower atmospheric moments, there aren't any that meander for long enough to bore a listener to tears. Gnosis solidifies Russian Circles as a focused, solid-as-a-rock sludge metal band for true fans of the genre.
