3 out of 5

Label: Flameshovel

Produced by: Greg Norman (engineering)

THEY NEVER CHANGE.  They’ve gotten a lot better at it, but they never really change.  Which is comforting in a way: There was never a Russian Circles that could’ve been, just a talented bunch of dudes playing instrumental rock that forever sounds sorta like that other band you listen to; the cover band that occasionally plays their own catchy – but derivative – tunes.  Extending that horribly judgmental metaphor, Entrance is thus akin to that same band’s still-in-college release, all bravado and rough production, back when the gang was still idealizing the music industry and thought they’d have a future; the songs reeeeach for emotion or the players pound on them instruments as hard as they can to be the loudest of the loud.  (Of course, the joke’s on me with this stuff, since Russian Circles certainly did have a future.)

Par for the course with circles, there’s no shortage of awesome moments on Enter – although these are some of their most directly complicated-sounding efforts, resulting in a cute offbeat nature to the interplay on some tracks – bit also par is that those moments are buffered by the most derivative lead-ins or bridges.  Oh, here’s the quiet pretty part.  Here’s the breakdown.  And etc.

There’s also the questionable mix of the album – surprising from the well-established Greg Norman, if his ‘engineering’ label attributed to that –  which sets the low-end to deafening, something of an foolish knob-fiddling move to make everything sound mad epic, when it really just makes the chugga chugga drum drum sound blown out.

But, hey, I’m still here, listening to Circles, criticizing them for not having their “own” sound… When they’ve been putting out steady releases since this initial foray into the instrumental metal genre.