4 out of 5
Label: Sargent House
Produced by: Kurt Ballou
My main complaint with Russian Circles, over the years, has been that they never – to me – established their own sound. I was always hearing remnants of Isis, or Pelican, and then later albums’ steps towards the more “emotive” and ambient inflections of Mogwai, or Red Sparowes, but never anything that felt definitively of Russian Circles themsleves.
Years, and albums later, RC has stayed the course, slow and steady, plying that sounds-like trade and… they’ve won the war. The defining Russian Circles sound is one that plays in the middle of swaying and moody and slow and grinding; they’ve made an art of being kind of broad but with intention and intensity. That may sound like a swipe but I truly mean it as a compliment: this is not pretend or chasing someone else’s sound: those someone else’s have since retired or maybe gone away from their own sound, while Circles have proven their purity as out and out instrumental metalers, in it for life, baby. And with Blood Year, their second outing with producer Kurt Ballou, they can dip into Kurt’s history and bring back in some of the once-cringey chugga-chugga of yore, sharpened by Ballou’s way of making any music sound angry as all get out, and by the group’s earned patience with their approach.
Blood Year was recorded moreso as full-band takes (instead of tracked individually), and that’s part of the formula here: the songs just vibe, and avoid some of the overly precious arrangements or forced “here’s the loud part” build and release that can underline their instrumental generalists vibe. Previously with Kurt, the goal was to go somewhat stripped down and dial in; don’t indulge in the Ballou-ness. But job done, now they can say fuckit, kick things off with the standard piece of ambience, that rock the hell out for the remainder.
As per RC norms, there’s nothing especially flashy, while at the same time tracks move enough to stay out of drone – again, it’s a middleground – but there are some excellent touches of guitar melodies and open chord ringing that are excitingly indulgent (there’s always the promise of a perfect Circles album, pushed just slightly outside of their comfort zone, one release away), and there’s truly not a track on here that doesn’t wring the most out of its comfortable formulas, kicking it up to be one of the band’s best, and most consistently satisfying, set of tracks.
