Balance and Composure
Only Boundaries
Released August 11, 2009
No Sleep Records
It is quite rare now that you hear a 4 song E.P. that has the impact of a full length. Balance and Composure, a youthful five piece band from Doylestown, PA, have given us just that. All the songs are completely unique from one another, but all blend together smoothly. The record clocks in at just short of 20 minutes, just enough time for the band to show you what they’ve got.
The opening track, I Can’t Do This Alone, gives a taste of the bands creative sound. The bass line strongly backs the drum beat during the intro until the electric guitars notes are slowly picked out giving a somber feeling to the song. Something that you will find over the course of these songs is the band’s love for tempo changes with the music as well as the vocals. There will be moments that you want to close your eyes and relax, and then there will be others where you will want to scream the lyrics at the top of your lungs.
The title track Only Boundaries crashes in with catchy rhythm guitar backing some awesome riffs. This song very much reminds me of Brand New, as well as many other parts of the E.P with more relaxed verses and strong passionate choruses. Show Your Face is without a doubt my favorite song from this release. The drumming stands out and completely sets the tone on this track. The chorus swoops in as the lyrics, “The sky is your window, but where am I hiding?” are belted out. The bridge of this song makes you wish you were seeing it live at small venue because it is so perfect for a gang sing along. “I was never about this, never about this love” he screams as single epic strums of the distorted guitars ring out.
What’s Wrong With Everything is the slowest song on the record, but also the perfect pick as the closer. Once you reach the middle of the track, you start to feel the track build. It grows for quite sometime until the beautiful climax repeats a few times before finishing out the stellar release. This young band has put together something special here, who knows what they could do on a full length.
4 1/2 stars.
Review by Chris Bongiovanni