Artist: Circles Over Sidelights
Album: What is and What is to Become
Label: Immigrant Sun
Tracks: 5
Length: 32:18
Review by: Luke Kruse

 

If you’ve been looking for a record that bridges the gap almost perfectly between thrashy metalcore such as Darkest Hour and Converge and post-rock such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Mogwai, look no further than Circles Over Sidelight’s newest EP, What is and What is to Become.  Circles Over Sidelights released their debut album, On Becoming a Person just six months or so prior to this release, and the amount of growth seen from that album to this one is staggering.  What is and What is to Become is only five songs long, but clocks in at a solid thirty-two minutes.

 

For the sake of journalistic integrity, let me admit that the guys in this band all live around twenty minutes from my house, and I run into various members at shows and such all the time.  However, don’t think I am just spouting off undeserved praise about some local, mediocre garage band.  Circles Over Sidelights have received glowing reviews from many respected webzines and print magazines, including being an “album of the week” on Lambgoat.com.

 

The press release that came with the album says that What is and What is to Become is an “ambitious piece of work.”  This is certainly the case, especially for a band where the average member is probably about nineteen years of age.  It is one of those albums that “flows” from one track into the next, an effect that I have always been a fan of.  When you first put this album on, and the first track “On Self Knowledge” begins, it is easy to think that you are probably just in for an album full of well-done, but typical, Swedish-inspired metal.  However, the three guitars that this band boasts soon begin to each explore their own place in a more subdued portion of the song before coming back together to make a raging wall of sound, finally slowing back down to flow into the next track, which happens to be entirely instrumental, and actually bears a strong resemblance to a band like Explosions in the Sky or the previously mentioned Godspeed You! Black Emperor.  Tracks three and four are the most aggressive on the album, and track five begins that way before closing with an uplifting and beautiful instrumental section. 

 

The whole album works very well at producing a continuous mood and an epic feel, and a couple of tracks even possess a well-placed saxaphone.  Lead guitarist John Berzanske absolutely shreds on several occasions, and drummer Alex Adams and bassist Adam Gothard do a great job of keeping the songs together.  What is and What is to Become is an album of contrasts, making the heavier parts seems all the more brutal and the more spacey parts all the more welcome as a chance to take a breath and enjoy some striking soundscapes.  The lyrics are also well-done, my favorite line being “I can hear every word…as each falls to my feet; scraping against the sidewalk.  The melody drives through my fingertips, and I step outside to see my breath appear before my eyes, a sign of life,” from “Five Weeks After Birth.”

 

If there is one downside to this album, it is the production.  While it is certainly a decent recording, the vocals often get buried in the mix, and keep this album from being a 3 ½ or 4 star album.  The only times the vocals come in at an acceptable volume are when vocalist Tony Bosma is doing a full-out scream, which he only does about half of the time.  I'm not asking for an absurd pop-punk mix with the vocals twice as loud as the instruments; it would just be nice not to have to strain my ears to hear the vocals. 

 

I hope that with future albums, this remarkably talented young band continues to explore soundscapes as they have with this album, and keep the thrash metal at a tasteful minimum.  Vocalist Tony Bosma is unfortunately no longer with the band, and I could easily see this band being outstanding instrumentally.  What is and What is to Become provides a great balance and help this record stick out among hundreds of other monotonous heavy albums.