Buy Now
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Oct 27, 2011As an album, Empros shows Russian Circles bringing together everything they've done before into one complete package, compiling the lessons of albums past into one singular vision, and bringing it all together for a new vision of their future.
-
Nov 11, 2011Bigger, stranger, and just plain heavier than any Circles disc before it, the first 35 minutes of Empros' empyrean, oblong alien-prog finds the band once again wrestling their grand ambitions into impossible shapes.
-
Nov 2, 2011The album is the natural progression and refining of everything the band has done prior to it; it encapsulates and exemplifies all at once.
-
Nov 15, 2011Sullivan's intelligent use of layers and loops create a phenomenally dense but remarkably accessible soundscape as the band constantly ebb and flow between bombast and introspection.
-
Nov 16, 2011Empros is consistently epic and life-affirming without ever delving into over-emotional cliché.
-
Nov 1, 2011Empros doesn't just defy gravity, it defines it.
-
Oct 25, 2011Though crunching at their heaviest, the band still shines brightest when they edge toward indie-rock approachability.
-
Oct 27, 2011The band's fourth album, Empros, seamlessly threads together a mire of unmitigated sonic emanations with a consciously utilized sensitivity to sound and beauty, crafting a less than monotonous or laborious listen.
-
MagnetNov 21, 2011Circles finds the band leaving a bit of the motorik behind for more melodic and dynamic territory. [#82, p.57]
-
Oct 25, 2011Empros proves Russian Circles' ability once again, without going horribly out of its way to prove something or make some sort of grand statement.
-
Nov 3, 2011"Batu" (Indonesia) circles but never lands, while closer "Praise Be Man" gurgles the end too early, but this hot comet Empros is anything but Greek.
-
Kerrang!Nov 29, 2011What unites all six fantastically constructed pieces on this album is the sound of a band delivering on their potential, and then some. [Nov. 19, 2011 p. 52]
-
Nov 1, 2011There's a determination in the undertone of the album. That determination in crafting of a band's best record to date, only covered by the confidence it lets off as well.
-
Oct 28, 2011Their name might suggest one thing, but this lot are definitely not going around in circles; this is their best record yet.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 19 out of 22
-
Mixed: 3 out of 22
-
Negative: 0 out of 22
-
Nov 24, 2011
-
Oct 28, 2011