3 out of 5

Label: Sargent House

Producer: Brandon Curtis and Russian Circles

I’ve never been quite able to view Russian Circles as their own entity and I couldn’t tell you why.  ‘Station’ came out right around the popularity surge for Pelican, and I suppose I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was just some bandwagon action happening there, especially with Botch/TAAS drummer Brian Cook joining and heavy metal maestro Matt Bayles twiddling knobs… which you could say is akin to a Jerry Finn punk pop debut or some Andy Wallace mainstream hard rock from the late 90s.  ‘Station’ just didn’t really have its own identity to me.  I like the disc, but it never really clicked in the way that some of my favorite instrumental groups / albums have.

But they kept working, and critics kept approving.  And ‘Memorial’ is here, and the cold cover art and album title are suggestive of… something.  Something expansive, or thoughtful, in the same way that Pelican’s released-around-the-same-time ‘Forever Becoming’ seemed like a shift toward a more ‘aware’ sound, vs. just trying to rock out at that moment.  And it gets off to a good start.  I dig bookends, or themes on a disc; opening track ‘Memorium’ echoes the softer wanderings of the title track closer, as well as introducing a general melody that will reappear throughout ‘Memorial.’  This repetition ends up being something of a curse, though.  For a group that I feel has trouble distinguishing themselves from track to track (beyond creating a generally respectable vibe of droney, heavy rock), limiting songs to a theme – especially one that in and of itself isn’t quite notable – makes a big stretch of the album just sort of disappear in sameness.  But prior to that they do make a substantial impression, in part thanks to bringing back the gutsier riffs of their earlier albums, and then in large part thanks to the anchoring of Cook, who drives and punctuates the best moments.  When ‘Memorium’ gives way to ‘Deficit,’ the chugga-chugga riffs and echoey layer atop the guitars will make you think you’re on a Hydra Head release.  The song starts and stops with purpose, and it really feels like the group has finally found a blend that can define their sound.  This is followed by the equally excellent ‘1777’, which melds their Mogwai influence with – as it evolves over the 7-minute runtime – more of that same, determined heft.  It’s when we take a break for ‘Cheyenne’, which reintroduces that theme, that the group’s efforts start to drift.  The remainder of the album will fade into an interesting riff, work on it for four minutes, then fade out.  The songs feel incomplete.  I don’t think you need 7 minutes to draft and full-fledged instrumental track, but Russian Circles might.  Each of these songs just barely gets to make its point before we return to that theme, which has a somewhat… sleepy sound to it, which again doesn’t help to differentiate one song from the next.

There’d be more to say about vocals appearing on the final track (from label mate Chelsea Wolfe), but the song is so ephemeral you hardly think about it.

None of this is bad, but its easy to tune out.  And thus it still doesn’t feel like Circles have fully arrived.  But: that first half of the disc is incredibly solid, and certainly keeps me interested to check out what comes next.