Review: Russian Circles- Station
Making the decision to exclude vocals from your music is adding an additional hurdle for you to overcome in any genre.
Doing so in Metal is practically begging to reside in music’s underground for eternity. It’s hard enough for Metal bands to get any kind of exposure. Now tell promoters that you’re a Metal band minus the typical screaming or growling and, well, your uphill battle just became Herculian. You’ve really got to shine instrumentally or you haven’t a prayer.
One of these excelling instru-metal bands is Chicago’s own Russian Circles. Their first release Enter snatched a quick and brawny following, granting their latest release Station the double-edged gift of high expectations. With high expectations comes the inevitable hope of what the long awaited product will finally offer and, depending on what you were expecting, Station may or may not deliver.
I think in order to be an exclusively instrumental band, you’ve got to continually evolve your sound. If you don’t noticeably grow and improve then you’re never offering something new and the novelty of your music begins to wear off. I believe this happened with Russian Circles’ Station.
This album is so eerily similar to the previous release that I’d swear it was recorded at the same time. With both albums checking in at a modest forty-four minutes long, you could have almost released them together as one full length and given the world the most epic hour and a half its ever seen. The tones are the same, the overall tempo and style is identical, basically the tracks all sound like you’re playing Enter backwards.
Now, obviously, the two albums weren’t recorded at the same time. And if all you wanted was more of the same (perhaps because Enter was shorter than you would have liked) than you’re probably reading this and wondering what the problem is. But as I stated earlier, if you’re going to pursue this highly specialized form of metal, then you’ve got to progress. And with as much as I played Enter, Station doesn’t blow me away like I hoped it would.
All of this said, Russian Circles are still an amazing band and I would still recommend Station to anyone who hasn’t heard this incredibly talented three piece before. Hopefully someday they will take a queue from their compatriots Pelican, however, and start playing outside their own backyard.
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As an entire album I think Station is better than Enter. Youngblood is better everytime I hear it.