Across the span of their previous seven studio albums, Chicago-based instrumental trio Russian Circles traversed a diverse topography of sounds, moods, and approaches with their limited armory of drums, bass, and guitar. It’s difficult to chart an evolution in their sound when their records have always felt like well-curated playlists. It wasn’t uncommon to hear drone-heavy meditations, dazzling prog exercises, knuckle-dragging riff-fests, haunting folk ballads, and tension-baiting noise rock all within the span of one album. Still, it’s difficult to ignore the progression from the pensive and intricate melodies of Enter (2006) to the layered distorted dirges of Blood Year (2019). It’s been a gradual sonic shift owing to the band’s rigorous tour schedule and a predilection towards playing their more authoritative material on stage. But with their latest album, Gnosis, Russian Circles eschew the varied terrain of their past work and bulldoze a path through the most tumultuous and harrowing territory of their sound.

A primarily instrumental post-metal act who use extended compositions to explore the texture and timbre of heavy noise, Pelican can be crushingly heavy or ethereal within the same song. Based out of Chicago, the group emerged in 2001 and released their debut album, Australasia, in 2003. They continued to explore the outer reaches of stoner rock, doom, and post-metal on acclaimed subsequent outings like City of Echoes (2007), Forever Becoming (2013), and Nighttime Stories (2019).

The secretive instrumental art metal outfit was formed in Chicago by guitarists Trevorn de Braw and Laurent Lebec, as well as bassist Larry Herweg and his sibling drummer, Bryan. Owing a great debt to pioneering forefathers Neurosis and often compared to Boston's Isis, Pelican coincidentally also found a home at Isis mastermind 's Aaron Turner's Hydra Head Records. After making their debut with an eponymous four-song EP in 2003, Pelican expanded their epic, otherworldly trance-metal with 2003's critically acclaimed Australasia, followed in 2004 by The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw. After heavy touring, the quartet took a much-deserved break. They returned to the studio in 2006 and released City of Echoes in June 2007, followed by the concert LP/film After the Ceiling Cracked later that December. What We All Come to Need, the band's fourth studio effort, appeared in 2009. While an EP, Ataraxia/Taraxis, arrived in 2012, that year would see the departure of Laurent Lebec, who was replaced by touring guitarist Dallas Thomas. Carrying on with a new lineup, the band released their fifth full-length, Forever Becoming, in 2013.

In 2015, Pelican issued the Cliff EP. It featured the album tracks in four different versions, including remixes from Justin Broadrick, Aaron Harris, and Bryant Clifford Meyer. It also included a vocal version featuring Allen Epley and a previously unreleased track, the semi-acoustic "The Wait." 2019 proved to be a busy year for the group, with the arrivals of a remixed and remastered version of Forever Becoming, a Record Store Day single, and a brand-new studio album, Nighttime Stories. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia & Thom Jurek, Rovi