Biography
Chicago-based instrumental post-rock/metal trio Russian Circles generate dense layers of expansive guitars, driving percussion, and weighty bass. Emerging initially through their 2006 debut Enter, the outfit rose to prominence among post-metal acts throughout the 2010s, earning broad praise for expansive albums including Empros in 2011 and Guidance in 2016 before delivering the unvarnished Gnosis during 2022.
Guitarist Mike Sullivan and bassist Colin DeKuiper established the group in late 2004, soon adding drummer Dave Turncrantz to the lineup. Sullivan and DeKuiper had previously played in the eclectic instrumental project Dakota/Dakota, whereas Turncrantz had created an emo-punk intensity in Riddle of Steel. The band issued a self-released EP under its own name in 2005, with two limited pressings disappearing rapidly. Their first full-length, Enter, arrived on Flameshovel in spring 2006, timed with a showcase at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, plus a short U.S. run alongside Minus the Bear and Chin Up Chin Up. DeKuiper departed in 2007 and was succeeded by Brian Cook, bassist of Botch and These Arms Are Snakes.
The trio recorded with producer Matt Bayles, formerly of Minus the Bear, and issued Station in 2008 as their initial release on Suicide Squeeze. Geneva followed in October 2009 as their third album. They shifted to Sargent House Records in 2011—the label that had already handled vinyl editions—for their fourth record, Empros. Memorial appeared in 2013, featuring a guest turn from singer Chelsea Wolfe, after which the pair co-headlined a U.K. and European tour. Guidance, their sixth full-length and third for Sargent House, surfaced in 2016. The next year brought their debut live album, Live at Dunk! Festival 2016. Blood Year, among their most straightforward and immediate statements, emerged in 2019. Gnosis arrived in 2022, its material developed separately by the members rather than collaboratively in the studio.
Guitarist Mike Sullivan and bassist Colin DeKuiper established the group in late 2004, soon adding drummer Dave Turncrantz to the lineup. Sullivan and DeKuiper had previously played in the eclectic instrumental project Dakota/Dakota, whereas Turncrantz had created an emo-punk intensity in Riddle of Steel. The band issued a self-released EP under its own name in 2005, with two limited pressings disappearing rapidly. Their first full-length, Enter, arrived on Flameshovel in spring 2006, timed with a showcase at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, plus a short U.S. run alongside Minus the Bear and Chin Up Chin Up. DeKuiper departed in 2007 and was succeeded by Brian Cook, bassist of Botch and These Arms Are Snakes.
The trio recorded with producer Matt Bayles, formerly of Minus the Bear, and issued Station in 2008 as their initial release on Suicide Squeeze. Geneva followed in October 2009 as their third album. They shifted to Sargent House Records in 2011—the label that had already handled vinyl editions—for their fourth record, Empros. Memorial appeared in 2013, featuring a guest turn from singer Chelsea Wolfe, after which the pair co-headlined a U.K. and European tour. Guidance, their sixth full-length and third for Sargent House, surfaced in 2016. The next year brought their debut live album, Live at Dunk! Festival 2016. Blood Year, among their most straightforward and immediate statements, emerged in 2019. Gnosis arrived in 2022, its material developed separately by the members rather than collaboratively in the studio.
Albums
Singles
Live
