"Gnosis turned out an awesome album. With its length of less than 40 min, it keeps the attention and adrenaline flowing from start to finish. The way these three musiscians are aligned and the way they can compliment each other is extraordinary. With a nice production and stunning artwork this is just a top notch release that will end up high in many yearlists I predict".
The instrumental post metal/rock powerhouse trio Russian Circles are back. Three years after Blood Year, their eight studio album** Gnosis** was released on the 19th of August via Sargent House.
With the pandemic paralysing the live music world, the only good thing that came from that was the time bands were given to write and record new music. The Chicago-based musicians must have felt strange with all the extra time on their hands, and with no deadlines in sight. Therefore, the new songs could get the process they needed to reach perfection. Whoever saw the trio live will know and feel the synergy and dynamism between them, which is so important in creating their own unique feeling. I remember seeing them live for the first time, at the mighty Dunk! Festival, and being completely ovewhelmed with the power and diversity they were able to produce with just the three of them. To be honest, since their crushing albums Memorial and Guidance, I haven’t really picked up Blood Year somehow, but when I gave Gnosis a first listen I was impressed immediately and gave it much more spins after that. It’s yet another killer album.
First song Tupilak begins a bit safe, but builts up to an exciting, energetic and powerful post-metal track, and is followed by Conduit, which immediately kicks off with heavy rolling riffs that return several times during the song until its abrupt ending. Title-track Gnosis opens with post-rock dreaminess that continues and grows in volume with a freakingly awesome last minute that’s full of heavy grooving riffages, thundering bass and hyper drum patterns. That’s going to be another fan-favourite live for sure. Also worth mentioning is that they made their first ever music video for this song.
Vlastimil sounds very transparant with many open and melodic passages, but secretely there are also some of the heaviest and fastest parts of the album in there. Ó braonáin is a short slow guitar-solo that sounds very light and friendly and stands out between all the heaviness and darkness. After less than two minutes Betrayal takes over again with a blastbeat and furious guitar and bass. I can’t recall Russian Circles sound any heavier than this part ever before. The overal sound and pace of this song stays like this with a full on, thundering climax in the end.
With Betrayal still reverberating, the album closer Bloom comes in and with that the most post-rock’ish and shoegaze song of the album. It contains so much melancholy that it evokes a deep Solstafír type atmosphere, and before you know it the album is finished.
Gnosis turned out an awesome album. With its length of less than 40 min, it keeps the attention and adrenaline flowing from start to finish. The way these three musiscians are aligned and the way they can compliment each other is extraordinary. With a nice production and stunning artwork this is just a top notch release that will end up high in many yearlists I predict.