Review Summary: Pleasing enough post-music with few surprises.
Russian Circles have a great sense of melody in Gnosis. Their wall of sound brings forth an engaging guitar tone that sticks to you, with songwriting that could’ve easily included vocals - fairly catchy. There’s a lot going for this instrumental post-rock/metal album, but also a lot holding it back. One thing’s for sure: the snare drum could slap the beard off the Lincoln statue, and the guitars go straight for the gut. On a side note, the guitar tone wouldn’t be ill-fitting in a gothic metal release at points - another cool edge for the album.
Unfortunately, nuance is lacking in this album, its great weakness. Sure, there’s some prettiness from the post-rock side, but on the other hand, the entire album is derivative. The post-rock bits are not unique in the slightest; worse are the nearly basic riffs that feel pulled from another alternative metal or even a nu-metal release in terms of standard catchiness. They’re certainly heavy but too repetitive, and more importantly, they lack imagination. The band rely on the wall of crushing sound they can create too often, but there are other bands that do so while producing extra standout segments.
It’s a great sounding album - it can’t be denied - the rock/metal combination is smoothly combined, with compelling portions from both soft and heavy ends. They can be pretty chill and suddenly turn it on its head with cavernous guitars, it’s interesting how elegantly dynamics coincide or collide. When Russian Circles stir in more post-rock guitars though, it’s my favourite part. It’s tasteful and calming, like seeing colours dance in a mirror.
Ultimately, I’m of two heads about this release. It feels too standard, yet there are plenty of moments that show a potentially very intriguing band. They also have a great drummer, pushing the songs in a fun direction, but I can’t say that’s terribly unique. There’s a great band here - they are a great band, but I would love to see them step out of their comfort zone. Until then, Russian Circles are filling in their gaps of creativity with more typical, seismic riffs. They’re good, but Gnosis could’ve been so much more intriguing.
