Clearly I’m in an instrumental phase.

I’ve been a fan of Russian Circles since seeing the Chicago trio at the Crocodile back in, I think, April. They were opening for the Appleseed Cast and they really stole the headliners’ thunder. The money I had in my pocket for an AC t-shirt instead went to buy a copy of Russian Circles full-length Enter. Worth every penny.

The folks at Suicide Squeeze are fans too; the band just signed with the local label (home of Minus the Bear) and they plan to release a new album as soon as spring of next year. The bad news is bassist Colin DeKuiper is no longer with the band. But the bonus good news is These Arms are Snakes’s Brian Cook (formerly of Botch) is going to record and play a few shows with the band, including the November 29 Seattle date at Neumo’s.

With Cook in the mix, and Bayles producing it, that record is going to sound so effing killerrrrr.

If you’re not familiar with the band, now is the perfect time to get into it. Enter is recommended listening for gray days like today (especially if you’re kind of worn out and tired like me and you just wanna zone out to something intense). Even more perfect is that Halloween is on Wednesday. Listen to the Russian Circles on Wednesday. The music’s sorta spooky. Not in a black metal way, though, more in a moody, maybe being chased by a ghost sorta way. But it’s probably a nice ghost. Not stupidly nice like Casper, but not mean enough to kill you. It’s got a lot of haunting guitar noises, explosive drumming, there are even some almost pretty, bright moments that sound like the clouds are starting to break apart in the otherwise solemn sky.

Here, listen (via russiancircles.net):
“Carpe”
“Death Rides a Horse”

November 29th needs to come faster.