4 out of 5

Label: Re:live

Produced by: ?

Hm, okay, I get it. I don’t recall exactly when I started listening to Russian Circles; they definitely hopped on to my radar with Station – hm, Suicide Squeeze; instrumental metal; Matt Bayles – but never quite made it onto my collect-’em-all list, being more of a casual listen. I couldn’t get over a mental block that they came in just a little behind Pelican, and then Red Sparowes, and that that was kind of the trajectory of their sound – RC, to me, essentially always sounded like a wishy-wash of the groups that were in the game slightly before.

When I would eventually go back and listen to Enter, their debut, it just reinforced that narrative, of kids trying real hard to make music like the bands they liked. Enter is fun, but it still comes across pretty tryhard to me, so heavy and moody.

But listening to this live album, captured when Enter was a self-released EP – before Greg Norman’s assist on the studio version – I now get it. Had I been in the audience for this, I would’ve bought that EP; I would’ve been hyped for whatever the band did next.

In part, I do think the changed sequence for this set helps out: Enter flip-flops things, and it gives the whole affair this attempted epic vibe. Shifting Carpe to last and New Macabre to first for the live set carries the same power of Carpe’s blown out conclusion, but doesn’t feel so forced in making an impression; you can totally vibe with the clean guitar / bass work for a good chunk of the runtime (whereas Carpe’s whole intention is to be quiet AND THEN LOUD). But there’s also just a generally different approach here that lends the music a greater sense of authenticity: it’s played… faster. Not fast, but also not the omg-we’re-gloomy Pelican-mimicking crawl found on Enter; it’s a much more organic way to present the material. And even if it’s just an artifact of how this was recorded and not the intention (I haven’t heard that self-released EP), the mix / master of the Flameshovel edition of Enter cranks the bass up to stupid extremes, which again feels like a very forced way of giving it impact. This recording – which carries no credits – is appreciably very clear, and crisp. You can tell it’s live, but mainly because of the audience and a kind of openness to the sound; it doesn’t even bear the telltale flatness of most live recordings.

The audience also amusingly helps, as they sound kind of obnoxious and chatty at the outset, but then clearly get into it; it’s very convincing as a listener.

There are occasional timing flubs with some of the more complex interplay that probably wouldn’t matter if you were in the audience, but kinda make you go “aw, shucks” when provided the opportunity to put this on repeat. But overall, in terms of my ranking live shows by how they compare to the studio versions – i.e. do they offer something new in some way: yes. This gives me an entirely different impression of Enter’s material – this is my preferred way to listen to it now – and even of the band, and how their sound might’ve (negatively, to me) been shaped in the studio.