In keeping with our rediscovered enthusiasm for all things Prog, this disc by a Chicago three-piece was almost guaranteed to float our boat. Not a question of transitory fashion at the ltd office, however - Geneva is a genuine art-metal belter.

These seven, throaty, heavy instrumental tracks take as their aural starting point the language of industrial metal, but instead of songs with a conventional rock structure Russian Circles have produced tracks which develop in a linear manner, never repeating themselves as they accumulate their massive layers of sound.

There is lyricism, too, but these beautiful moments serve mainly to emphasise the nihilism and fury of the rest of the album. It is not fanciful to compare these works with those of some contemporary classical composers - Steve Martland, perhaps, or - in the way the music develops almost through a compositional stream-of-consciousness - even John Adams.

It is big, and it is clever, but that shouldn’t frighten off freethinking hard rock fans. Anyone with a full collection of Nickleback albums should probably think twice, though...