Intervals – Circadian
Release Date: 13th November 2020
Bandcamp
Genre: Instrumental Rock, Progressive Metal.
FFO: Plini, David Maxim Micic, Modern Day Babylon, Periphery, Sithu Aye, Arch Echo.
Review By: Ryan Shearer
Aaron Marshall’s project Intervals is back with his newest album Circadian. Now fully back in the swing of being an instrumental project, his third album since ‘rebooting’ the Intervals project is focused and polished. Being more involved in the production and mixing process due to being created in Toronto, Aaron Marshall truly took the reins of Circadian and released something uplifting and impressive.
5-HTP is a fun and bright way to start the album, filled with hope and positive emotion. Circadian was created with the human circadian rhythms as a central theme, and the first track on the album feels like a warm and positive introduction to the high groovy Vantablack. The heavy, thick riffs fight for centre stage as much as the lead guitars do, with a chunky production and supporting synth beefing out the track. Luna[r]tic dips and soars between smooth, emotional verses before revving up to top speed for the choruses; Nathan Bulla on drums goes all-in on those!
Lock & Key channels vibes from Intervals contemporary Plini, with spacey and atmospheric leads. It’s not quite a headbanger, more of a headnodder, but it hits how it needs to. Lock & Key, String Theory and D.O.S.E features guest performers, with the first 2 being guitar (Joshua De La Victoria & Macro Sfogli respectively) and the latter adding some fusion-esque magic on a saxophone (Antonio Hancock aka Saxl Rose). Earthing is a personal standout track, really ending the album on a high with dark, alien-pulsing synths setting the scene for a truly out-of-this-world album closer. It hones in on the positive, major key optimistic tone the album has been playing with throughout, and drives it home.
Every track on Circadian has a distinctive voice, a flavour of its own which is not easily achieved on an guitar-centric instrumental album, but from a veteran like Aaron Marshall it comes across like second nature. Signal Hill’s main chorus melody sounds like it could be a vocal line; it is almost like the guitar is acting as both instrument and vocals at some points.
There is always a risk with solo guitar-focused albums that it veers off into guitar-wankery, where the main composer is trying to get the album to focus on skill over substance; this is absolutely not the case on Circadian. Much like the aforementioned Plini & David Maxim Micic of Destiny Potato/ Sordid Pink, Aaron took a considered approach towards making each section and phrase stand out. The guitar rarely does take a step back to let the other instruments really shine, but in tracks like Luna[r]tic and D.O.S.E it does work to the wider album’s advantage to have a moment of thinner texture to allow it to build up again.
The album has a very positive, almost summery feeling throughout. It evokes feelings of hope like sunrays through clouds on a July morning, and it’s a genuinely refreshing and welcomed change. Lockdown 2.0 needed some light to penetrate through its grey haze, and Circadian shines bright.
(4 / 5)
