Russian Circles + Pelican + Fotocrime

Russian Circles is coming back to Prague again, after sold-out performances in Lucerne and last year's, the biggest Prague concert to date in the ARCHA+ space, this time they will go to the MeetFactory in Smíchov. They will be joined by Chicago's Pelican and Louisville's Fotocrime.

Throughout their discography to date, the instrumental formation Russian Circles has ventured across a diverse terrain of sounds, moods and approaches, although they have been content only with drums, bass guitar and the guitar. From their debut Enter (2006) to the dense, layered tracks on Blood Year (2019), their music has gradually transformed, from meditative and complex melodies to raw, distorted monuments.

Na with the last album Gnosis (2022), the band decided to leave a wide spectrum of styles and focused on the most intense and darkest positions of their sound. The pandemic forced them to change their writing process - each member composed independently, creating material filled with tension and physical energy. The result, produced by Kurt Ballou, is their most concentrated and furious album yet, an explosion of two years of pent-up unrest. "Although they still explore a wide energy spectrum, they are not afraid to go straight to the point and sweep the listeners away. Russian Circles still write unforgettable riffs," Metal Injection portal described the essence of the band.

The return of Russian Circles to the Smíchov factory will be symbolic in a certain sense - Russian Circles is one of the bands that has accompanied the magazine Full Moon for as long as you can remember to her concert at the same place twelve years ago with Chelsea Wolfe, which was organized by the founder of the magazine Jana "Apačka" Kačurová, the former crowded Podnik a few years later and their other shows. The formation was formed at the turn of the millennium and from the beginning embodied the free spirit of the home music community. The return of the original guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec also meant the restoration of the original dynamic and led to the creation of Flickering Resonance (2025), a record that combines doom roots with the emotions and melodies of nineties post-hardcore. "On the scene of instrumental rock and metal today, there are countless bands that have to offer either exceptional playing skills or a unique character. Pelican have a privileged position in this regard, they were one of the first to get listeners excited about this genre. On the current recording, they age with dignity, they seem reborn without straying too far from their typical sound," wrote Echoes and Dust magazine. Led by producer Sanford Parker, Pelican created an album that does not celebrate the past, but the present, which is like a flame in the dark: it reminds of everything that has passed and at the same time hints at what is yet to come.

The Fotocrime project, led by Ryan Patterson, is also part of the line-up. He belongs to the founding stones of the legendary scene from Louisville, bands like Black God and especially Coliseum are among (not only) the legends there. After Coliseum broke up more than ten years ago, Ryan began to devote himself to a new project with no less vigor.

Fotocrime performed in the Czech Republic several times, their dark post-punk does not lack the famous edge, but at the same time, Ryan unleashed a perhaps unexpected sense of straightforward melodies here. Fotocrime received unrelenting punk energy and inspiration from names like Sisters of Mercy or Echo & the Bunnymen, albums Principle of Pain or Heart of Crime are already classics. Fotocrime returns to Prague with the expected new album Security, which is released on March 13.

Timetable:

• 19:00 – doors open
• 19:40 – Fotocrime
• 20:35 – Pelican
• 22:00 – Russian Circles