The drums were recorded in Chicago's Electrical Audio, with Mike Sullivan and Brian Cook "playing live alongside drummers Dave Turncrantz's takes.

[5] Bassist and synth programmer Brian Cook stated in an interview during the writing period for Gnosis that, "Russian Circle's stuff tends to involve a lot of layering, whether that's me adding loops, or playing the Moog Taurus and the guitar part at the same time, or switching between instruments".

"[4] A live performance of songs from the album recorded at the Audiotree studio in Chicago was described as being "difficult to translate how loud this band actually is without standing directly in the room.

[13][14] In spite of this a review of their performance said "despite having just had $100,000 worth of gear stolen Sunday night from their U-Haul in Chowchilla, Russian Circles still showed up and played a 20-minute set filled with powerful instrumentation.

Directed by Joe Kell they wanted to create something with "cinematic footage of nature and humanity" with the goal to "compel viewers to rewatch the video and get something new from each viewing.

[7] AllMusic noted that the tracks were "more intense, visceral pieces, and Gnosis plays as a deliberately paced narrative rather than a fragmented patchwork" due to the band's changed composing routine of writing songs independently and bringing them to the others instead of the previous method of working on music together in a practice room.

[21] Visions showed the progression in songwriting from post-rock music featuring contrasting parts with the song "Conduit" which "whipped up a groove in just over four minutes that would make even the old Nu metal contemporaries green with envy.

"[28] On "Betrayal" Guitar World noted Sullivan's "metal and heavy Krautrock influences, as opposed to the Pink Floyd-spaciousness of previous releases.