Genevaby Russian Circles

Great album. It takes some getting used to, and it is a weird texture. Very industrial (as the cover art would suggest) and not a lot of emotion. There are, however, some very powerful crescendos and great riffs. Since it has no vocals, this is great music to listen to while writing or doing something that requires concentration. All things considered, the industrial texture is done very well and despite its aforementioned lack of emotion, this album does have a very unique and awesome feel. That is aided by the monstrous, distorted bass tone, which really drives home the point. The drumming is also great. The guitar playing is somewhat boring at times, but most of the time it's integral to the sound, and there are even some catchy riffs, such as the opening guitar riff of the song 'Malko'.

I'd give this between 3 and 4 stars. It's very good for what it is, but since it doesn't have much vocals or keyboards, don't expect it to be incredibly varied, or as interesting as, say, progressive rock. That said, it has more than its fair share of creative passages and interesting stuff. It's also amazing what they're able to do by breaking out of the traditional verse-chorus-etc. song structure that dominates rock'n'roll. Freed from those constraints, this is very intelligent music that's not predictable, but still flows. You can tell that these musicians are really letting the creative juices flow, and that makes this a great post-rock/post-metal album.