Russian Circles – Memorial

"Memorial", the fifth album from Russian Circles, balances metal-influenced sounds with nuanced orchestral elements. In the two years following the release of "Empros", the Chicago trio toured almost incessantly around the world, encountering many heavier bands whose music seemed unnecessarily complicated. 'So we set out to record an uncomplicated, straightforward, intense, heavy record,' says Cook. "Unconsciously we were aiming for darker and grittier sounds. We wanted to get away from the overt intrusiveness."

In their search for the optimized sound, the trio focused on each individual song with its own emotional and musical qualities. And so 'Memorial' almost feels like climbing the steps of grief and descending them again. The concept is supported by the album's clever structure, as it ends in the same place it begins, and of course by the appearance of guest vocalist Chelesa Wolfe, whose hauntingly sombre vocals on the closing title track give the album a fitting end. To a certain extent, the monolithic, co-existing moods on 'Memorial' are the band's reaction to the prevalence and influence of iPod culture and how it has recently affected the songwriting processes of bands.

These days, many musicians try to concoct a sonic mash-up from disparate elements and the results sound as unpalatable as a meal cooked blindfolded.

Russian Circles, on the other hand, cleverly and skillfully avoid the pitfalls of genre fusion. 'I want to hear bands with a broad palette,' says Cook, 'but it should strike this weird balance between range and breadth. We wanted an album with more extreme highs and lows. I hope we can get away with having made a schizophrenic record."