Russian Circles

Post-rock and black metal have never sounded this good together. Russian Circles manipulates the sweeping beauty of instrumental rock music and meshes it together with the "slit-your wrist" depressed style of doom metal. It is always fascinating to have two extremes paired together. Reflective sensitivity and ear shattering nihilism intuitively have no place together, but Russian Circles makes it work. They can linger in the beauty of quite atmospheric tones, but rupture the silence with sonic waves of clashing cymbals and heavily distorted / detuned bass.
There really isn't much apparent melody in the performances of Russian Circles and their live presentation at best is stoic. However this does not mean they are boring to see live. If the incredible loudness of the performance doesn't shake you into absolute mesmerization than the technical connectivity of the band will. They weave pieces of noise into interesting textures and create auricular palates consisting of sounds that offset each other in interesting ways. The drums provide a barbaric and simply calculated beat, at other times they are unpredictable and complex. The guitar is used primarily for textural construction introducing sharp hisses of noise, reverberated echoes and soft soundscapes. The bass adds a huge punch to the music really accenting the drum beat and keeping the overall structure of the song on track.
For a three piece band Russian Circles offers a wide array of sounds. Going to one of their concerts you could be basking in the ambience and beauty of such tracks as "Memorial" or feel like you are battling against the baltic winds on a viking ship with brooding pieces such as "309".

Post-rock, post-metal, stoner, doom rock, black metal….call it what you will, but Illinois four-piece Pelican make a thunderous racket on record and in concert. Formed in 2000 by brothers Brian and Larry Herweg, Trevor de Brauw and Dallas Thomas, Pelican don’t just lay all their cards on the table by relying on riffs – this is a band that relies as much upon atmospherics as it does the power of noise. Connected to both Hydra Head and Southern Lord records, the band has toured with kindred spirits Isis and Wolves in the Throne Room and released great records like 'Australasia' and 'Forever Becoming,' standing out as pioneers in that post-metal sound that draws as much from electronic ambient music as it does from crunching guitar riffs. As they’re an entirely instrumental band, Pelican has to rely wholly on the power of its music live, as there’s no front man to carry the focus. That’s not a problem though as "Dead Between the Walls" from 2007’s 'City of Echoes' launches straight into a barrage of heavy riffing, while "Strung Up from the Sky" chimes first before building to a wall of noise without ever losing that gorgeous melody. Long-time encore and final set closer "Mammoth" has survived since the band’s first EP and it simply lays riff upon riff until you are battered into submission. Although there’s nothing wrong with this music on record, I always say the best way to experience bands like Pelican is when they play live. That way, you get power and noise completely unedited or watered down by studio trickery.