STATION

It's been more than a year since the last Russian Circles review here on PA and that review was penned by yours truly! This is quite surprising considering all the praise that was spilled over this Chicago based trio's debut album Enter, only a few years back. Since then, the band has shifted gears and moved away from the metal style that was so prominent on their 2006 masterpiece. This was at least what I've read in the reviews for both Station and Geneva both here on PA and many other websites. This tiny bit of misinformation was actually the sole reason why I didn't give these albums my attention until now. So why do it after all this time? The answer to this is simple --- I finally got a chance to attend a Russian Circles live show!

You see, back in 2009 the band was planning to play a gig here in Stockholm, Sweden but this gig just wasn't meant to be. Luckily, I've still had my passion for Enter burning in me as I purchased the tickets for their July, 2011 show and it's pretty clear that I was not disappointed! The band began their performance with a completely mesmerizing take of Harper Lewis, or at least this was the name of the track once I asked a few other audience members about it. This composition was easily the highlight of the entire show since it completely knocked me off my feet and even made my eyes wet from Dave Turncrantz's and Brian Cook's drum and bass intro which then followed by the joyous tones of Mike Sullivan's guitar. Russian Circles followed this tour de force with great live renditions of Station and Youngblood, all of which just happened to be featured on the band's sophomore release and so it was pretty much a none-brained for me to purchase the album right there and then!

Station is a very fluent album, helped by the smooth transitions between the tracks and the great softer moments like Campaign and especially Verses. I've been pretty much playing this album non-stop since the gig and it has already surpassed the high level quality of their debut Enter! This material has received some unjust criticism so far and I hope that the fact that Russian Circles still base most of their live repertoire on this particular release speaks more for Station than I ever could!

***** star songs: Harper Lewis (7:15) Youngblood (7:34)

**** star songs: Campaign (6:40) Station (8:43) Verses (8:42) Xavii (4:29)