Wow, is this a smack in the face or what? In between all the Shai Huluds and Poison The Well’s there is room for bands who thrive on the complexity of extreme metal and grease shit up with the abrasiveness of hardcore. Few know how to wrap it up with melody and accessibility. BTBAM is not one of them. At least not for most of this album. Their Victory Records debut shines with Cynic/Confessor/Death inspired metal, jazzed up with clean and acoustic interludes and unbelievable blast beat terror. Some electronics here, some samples there and singer Tommy Rogers flexible yet not convincing singing/ranting.

The band’s clogged sound embraces little room for silence yet multiple layers of complex noise. But they do this in such a way it doesn’t feel completely natural. Oddly enough the acoustic “Shevanel Take 2” is one of the strongest tracks on the album.

Check out the jazzy leads or the great Chuck Chuldiner (RIP) melodic guitar leads. These guys can surely play - I should also mention the drumming, no doubt about that. But hold on, the band seems to forget that there’s a limit to bearable noise at times, the human brain can only comprehend so much. When music becomes totally abstract you don’t make things easy on yourself, let alone your listeners. BTBAM tends to do that at times. With The Silent Circus they have shown us they can play, now show us you can write decent songs. So all in all the song writing needs to be improved, cause for now The Silent Circus is a tough ride. This doesn’t have to be a downside, if the tough ride in the end is worth the while. The Silent Circus does not have that quality. It only has the potential.