CHIRP: The Chicago Independent Radio Project

Aharona Moxie Ament writes

The Beauty in Loud. Russian Circles; My Favorite band of 2008

Loud noises scare me. The last thing I ever thought I’d write is a review about how a metal band changed my life, but there is something about local band Russian Circles that has helped me navigate this genre of music that I had never explored before.

I went out to see Russian Circles last July after hearing about them and then reading a few hyped up reviews about them. It was one of those times where you hear a phrase or in this case a band for the first time and suddenly they were everywhere. I then had the serendipitous chance hearing them on the radio they day after I first heard the name and was hooked . What was odd about the whole experience was that they are an instrumental metal band and the concept of instrumental music was always lost on me. As a singer when it came in instrumental music I would listen to a few progressions and think “That’s nice. When does the singing start?” In my dull and somewhat limited musical world a song was not a song without lyrics and I seemed to have no place for it. But upon seeing Russian Circles last summer, I was completely taken. The swooping circular structures of their songs all combining a souring guitar with a driving bass and drum gave each note a feeling of lasting forever all while being coddled in a sound that was dreamy, yet turbulent and did I mention loud? It was the first time I was at a show where the volume shook my heart hard and yet, I felt safe. There were no words, just a lush sound and a sea of metal boy’s hair weaving in and out to the rhythm like the tide. At the end of the show I felt like a child who discovered something new, wonderful and completely alien. My soul had been stripped of any expectations, needs or wants as the echoes of their set spun in my head. It could have lasted forever as far as I was concerned.

I knew from this point that I needed to hear more and spend more time with this sound. I went and bought their 2006 EP Enter. The first time I heard the song “Micah” from this EP, I cried. No, for real. I have always been the type that has had an emotional response to music, but for the first time my tears were not the product of a connection with lyrics or the energy and passion in the gut of a singer. I was in love with a sound independent of words. This was something I had never experienced and is the reason why Russian Circles are my favorite new find of 2008. Going out and saying this I am hearing that they have been sweeping up fans since Enter, but 2008 will always be in my mind the year I first heard Russian Circles as well as the year that yielded the trio’s second release, Station.

Hearing them has changed my viewpoints as well as challenged my boundaries and comfort levels in terms of the music I surround myself with. The time I spent listening to Russian Circles has helped me grow as a musician, and as a listener of music. I am able to hear with less expectation to what is and is not pleasing to my ear and through this amazing band I found the beauty in loud. In short, Russian Circles rock my world and if you have not had the experience of listening to them well then duh, you should.