Seven Circle Sunrise - The Beauty in Being Alone

Upon first listen to Beauty in Being Alone, I was in love.  I admired the album straight away and knew there was something special about it.  But it was not until researching the band for this review that I came to grips with just how deep the album really is.

This is not just an album made up of songs about things that the band thinks the target audience will relate to.  This album is made up of songs about the troubles that lead singer and guitarist, Veno Xavier, experienced growing up.  He has no shame in saying that he comes from an abusive home, has experienced foster homes, felt the pain of his mother suffering at the hands of muscular dystrophy and later her passing.

This album is raw and very beautiful.  Furthermore, the album title, Beauty in Being Alone, is self-explained through the symbolic lyrics.

Beauty in Being Alone finds Xavier coming to terms with his past, exorcising his pain in the crunchy riffs of “Broken Man”, “Dead Love Letters” and “Place I Was Before”.

There are more somber tracks on the album though, such as “Nevershine” and “Home”.  I prefer the band’s more slow-paced tracks compared to the heavier tracks as I find them more expressive of the songs’ emotions. Overall, I found it hard to single out one track off the album that I loved more than the others.

“Another Day” has good use of both styles mentioned, and the band showcases the anguish of the death of Xavier’s mother.  The trickling notes running in the background behind the heavier guitars create a clever build-up to the emotive chorus:

Christ it’s me who cried

When you took away my Mother

 I have yet to rise and see another day

The style of Seven Circle Sunrise makes me think of what would happen if Seether integrated with Daughtry.  The harder songs are similar to the style of Seether and the melodic songs having the hand-on-heart ballad feel that a lot of Daughtry’s songs do.

I found it very hard to say anything critical about this album. That is surprising considering it the band’s first, but it really is near perfect.  Each song has depth and the music compliments the lyrics like the last piece of a puzzle.