:: Sounds Of Sirus - Singularity

Sounds Of Sirus

Drawing members out of the ashes of several local acts (most notably (Revolución Street, The Grand Arcanum, Girl Pilot and Omniana), Melbourne based rock outfit Sounds Of Sirus formed in late 2009, and have spent the better part of the last couple of years gigging around the scene, all the while writing songs and refining their sound. Having drummed themselves up a bit of a buzz in the underground scene, the five piece act entered Basin Studios with Matt D’Arcy resulting in their debut EP ‘Singularity’. The opening track ‘Day By Name’ is by far one of the EP’s harder hitting efforts, with the guitars sounding very upfront and in your face. But while the song does boast a bit of muscle, it’s not at the expense of the underlying melodic structure that flows from the verses and comes out in all its hooked glory in the choruses. Sounding in part like a cross between Dead Letter Circus and early Karnivool, but without the overly progressive and heavier elements, Sounds Of Sirus know their way around a good song with strong melodies – even if it does take a few listens for the character of the song to really reveal itself. ‘I Won’t Be Listening’ doesn’t stray too far from the feel and vibe of the opener in the musical sense with its dominating delayed guitar effects, but stands out as one of the EP’s stand out cuts with a powerful performance from Day with his inspired and daring vocal lines, while the title track ‘Singularity’ is perhaps one of few obvious examples of where the pre-chorus borrows from Birds Of Tokyo’s school of song writing. ‘Twisted Little Mind’ is a definite favourite with its huge sing-a-long chorus and heavier guitar output, with the EP first single ‘A New Line’ and ‘Pantomime’ close runners up, while the semi-acoustic and laid back ‘Close My Eyes’ provides an insight to another side of the band’s sound, with great results. On a cursory listen, it’s easy to dismiss ‘Singularity’ as sounding a little too ‘samey’ all the way through. And it’s a fair criticism too, as the delayed guitar effects that feature on the first song features throughout the EP. But after several listens, the songs do eventually reveal themselves as sounding different from one another. If you have the patience, then ‘Singularity’ will reward you with some great songs. Even though there are a couple of weaker tracks amongst the seven presented here, there is enough presented to know that there’s potential within Sounds Of Sirus to release something really impressive over a full-length sometime in the future.