US / THEM: Russian Circles new album 'Memorial' out today

"Their strongest offering yet, an evolutionary leap for the entirety of post-metal.10/10" -- Crave Online

"Unquestioningly one of 2013's true artistic masterpieces. 10/10" -- PopMatters

"Vital and nourishing food for the imagination." -- The Guardian (UK)

Chicago trio Russian Circles release their acclaimed fifth album, Memorial today. The full album is available for physical order HERE and digital HERE. Stream/share Memorial in full HERE.

Pitchfork recently premiered the epic tune "1777" is available to listen/share on Pitchfork or Soundcloud. Rolling Stone also recently debuted the album's title track, featuring guest vocals by label (and tour) mate Chelsea Wolfe. Listen to "Memorial" HERE. Russian Circles previously shared the first track from the album via Pitchfork. Listen to the song "Deficit" HERE. (Soundcloud link HERE.) Check out cover art and track listing below.

Russian Circles are currently on the road in the EU and UK with Chelsea Wolfe. Both bands are playing full headlining sets, with Wolfe joining Russian Circles to sing the album title track every night. Russian Circles will also tour the US in early 2014. Please see complete dates below.

Perhaps the most immediately apparent characteristic of the fifth Russian Circles album, Memorial is its wide range of emotion. Vacillating from somber-yet-soaring melodies on one track to pummeling metal heft on the next, Memorial sounds like an album with split personalities.

Where one song showcases guitarist Mike Sullivan, drummer Dave Turncrantz and bassist/keyboardist Brian Cook's mastery of lush melancholic melody, the next exhibits their most abrasive underground metal leaning sound, with washed-out 16th-note riffs and crushing rhythms. The band's penchant for endless hooks remains a constant, but Memorial embodies their most dramatic ranges in tone.

"We've always tried to balance our metal-influenced sounds with more nuanced, pretty, orchestral elements," Cook says. "But this time, it's far more polarized in that the heavy parts are much more blown out and exaggerated while the pretty moments are far more restrained, delicate, and atmospheric." In the two years since Russian Circles released their landmark fourth album Empros, the Chicago trio toured worldwide nearly incessantly, encountering many heavy acts whose music seemed needlessly complicated. "We set out to make a straightforward, intense, heavy record," Cook explains. "We subconsciously gravitated toward darker and more somber sounds. We wanted to get away from the overtly flashy."

In search of such a streamlined sound, the trio focused on each individual song having its own emotional and musical characteristics. As such, Memorial almost feels like stages of grief. That notion might be aided by 1) the album's clever structuring, in which it ends in the same place as it starts, and 2) special guest vocalist Chelsea Wolfe lending her hauntingly somber vocals to the album closing title track.

Memorial was recorded at the Electrical Audio studio in Chicago with the band's longtime producer Brandon Curtis of The Secret Machines and Interpol who also helmed the band's two previous albums, Empros and Geneva.

Memorial is available on LP, CD and download via Sargent House on October 29th, 2013.

RUSSIAN CIRCLES + CHELSEA WOLFE // EUROPE 2013

Oct 29, 2013 - London, UK @ Electric Ballroom
Oct 30, 2013 - Gent, BE @ Vooruit
Oct 31, 2013 - Karlsruhe, DE @ Jubez
Nov 1, 2013 - Utrecht, NI @ Tivoli de Helling
Nov 2, 2013 - Koln, DE @ Stollwerck
Nov 3, 2013 - Hamburg, DE @ Club Logo
Nov 6, 2013 - Helsinki, FIN @ Tavastia
Nov 7, 2013 - Oslo, NO @ Bla
Nov 8, 2013 - Gothenburg, SE @ Truckstop Alaska
Nov 9, 2013 - Copenhagen, DK @ KB18
Nov 10, 2013 - Berlin, DE @ C- Club

RUSSIAN CIRCLES // EUROPE 2013

Nov 11, 2013 - Dresden, DE @ Beatpol
Nov 13, 2013 - Vienna, AT @ Szene
Nov 14, 2013 - Budapest, HU @ Durer Kert
Nov 15, 2013 - Belgrade, SR @ Bozidarac
Nov 16, 2013 - Zagreb, HR @ Mochvara Club
Nov 17, 2013 - Munich, DE @ Feierwerk
Nov 19, 2013 - Moscow, RU @ B2
Nov 20, 2013 - St. Petersburg, RU @ Club Zal