Russian Circles
Geneva
(Suicide Squeeze, 2009)

How are the mornings for you these days? Are you one to pop out of bed and greet each day like a new opportunity, full of hope and personal betterment? Or, are you one to lay there until the last possible moment with the blankets pulled up to your eyes in a feeble attempt to fend off the trepidation of work stress, money stress, or the mere general assy-ness you know the day will bring? I understand. Might I suggest something to you? Screw the morning workout. Fuck the man. Just put a stop to all of that nonsense. Instead, get outta bed, put on the coffee, and have yourself a gnarly air guitar session. Exercise and exorcise! I tried it the other morning and it was a pretty righteous way to start the day. I tried it to Russian Circles’ latest release, Geneva, a record that contains a surplus of orchestral-inspired metal histrionics just waiting to deliver you a cathartic experience.

Geneva, the third release from this Chicago-based band, is a sludgy journey through metal, post-rock, and experimental and progressive instrumental music that casts glimmering light and ominous shadows across the peaks and valleys of one’s mind. While the band’s 2006 album, Enter, exemplified rawer immediacy filled with elements of frenetic math rock, and 2008’s Station broadened their reach with more metered, complex metal meditations, their latest release showcases the band fully realizing their propensity for absolute, cunning atmospherics. Newcomers, cellist Allison Chesley and violinist Susan Voelz, add some of the more symphonic developments. If you dig bands like Pelican and Mono, welcome home.

Album opener “Fathom” begins with what sounds like an orchestra warming up, yet is quickly consumed by anxiety-filled guitar and impending drumming. It should be noted that, right from the start, Brian Cook’s (Botch and These Arms Are Snakes) bass work comes to the forefront here and remains a formidable presence throughout the rest of the album—notably the badass bass solo in the title track that follows “Fathom.” The doom quiets temporarily with “Melee”, as cello and violin open the song to give it a theatrical bent of some deathless romance. But by the end of the seven-minute song, it starts to sound like its given name, as the enchantment is disrupted with a tumult of guitar, bass, and drums attempting to shred apart whatever hope was to be found here. “Hexed All” follows with some gentle mood music, like a breezeless morning after a ruthless storm.

“Malko” is a showcase of drummer Dave Turncrantz’s incredible talent. Always a focal point of past Russian Circles records, it is on this track where he takes his game to a whole other level, and it’s pretty damn mind-blowing. “Malko” is 100 percent pure, charging adrenaline all the way through, and bleeds right into “When the Mountain Comes to Muhammad”, the first time a voice can be heard on Geneva. An audio sample that sounds like a news announcement, possibly about a world-ending attack, plays over a light, foreboding guitar riff. The man speaking is drowned out eventually by the music as the song takes on a judgment day tone, a day when true colors are shown by all, and both glory and condemnation are subsequently handed out in equal parts. Album closer “Philos” is a 10-minute long reconciliation with the aftermath.

Perhaps, while listening to this record, my imagination got the best of me… you’ll have to pardon this as I read a lot of fantasy fiction. But with instrumental music this heavy and beautiful and revealing, its ability to take my mind to such vivid places without providing the words to help me along is nothing but a genuine compliment to Russian Circles, a band mastering their craft. However, Geneva isn’t about perfection. To these ears, it’s about a human race both physically and spiritually flawed, which invariably leads to seemingly inevitable, oftentimes devastating consequences, which only then give way to the magnificence that is the natural order of things.

Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]