Russian Circles return with “Malko” off their new LP Geneva, continuing their immense, epic instrumentals with added intricacy and a renewed sense of direction. “Malko” finds Russian Circles initially taking their metal riffs down a notch but never once letting up on the ferocity of their earlier sound. As the opening riff drops out, the fierce noise that replaces it equals anything off their prior albums and EPs.

The concepts on Russian Circles’ Station are far from new—this particular genre being dominated by power names like Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, and Dungen—but in comparison, there seems to be more going on here thanks to an added guitar or two. Like EitS, Russian Circles lacks vocals, such that the emphasis is, of course, on the instrumentation and a play on loud versus soft.