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." Ticket Outlets - Advance ticket is available at all ticket outlets on 20th-June afterwards. - Plus $10.00 HKD service fee http://www.whitenoiserecords.org/ White Noise Records Enquiry: 2591 0499 九龍上海街720號1樓 (太子站C2出口, 近旺角维景酒店) 1/F, 720 Shanghai Street, Kowloon (Prince Edward C2 EXIT, close to Metropark Hotel Mongkok) Kubrick-BC Enquiry: 2384 8929 九龍油麻地眾坊街3號駿發花園H2地舖 Shop H2, prosperous garden, 3 public square st., yaumatei, Kowloon