album reviews: Russian Circles & Rye Coalition

The Summer of Noise continues for me this week with the arrival of a couple of loud and heavy albums that I'm having a hard time pulling out of my CD changer...

Russian Circles is a three-piece from Chicago who play a Proggy Metal that is moody and brash all at the same time, kind of like Tool without the pretension, or maybe an instrumental melange of Rush, Helmet, and The Police...yeah, that's it.

They've only been a band since 2004, but they sound like an outfit that have played with and off each other for much longer. Their CD, Enter, is out on Flameshovel Records, the same guys who brought you Chin Up Chin Up.

Russian Circles - "Death Rides A Horse" mp3 buy

My Jersey homies Rye Coalition released their fourth album last month, the Dave Grohl produced Curses. Traversing the same Boogie Punk course as bands like Buckcherry and The Giraffes, Rye Coalition's ace-in-the-hole is singer Ralph Gregory Cuseglio, who sounds at times remarkably like Paul Stanley, and other times like their mentor Grohl, but always dead in the pocket.

One of those albums that burns long past the usual first-three-songs-limit of most rock records, Curses is twelve-tracks of nitro-fueled guitar groove perfect for pretending you are in a Raceway Park commercial doing that burn-out-in-the-bleach thing that "funny cars" do.

Rye Coalition - "Young Yellers" mp3 buy