Album Review: Caspian - On Circles

Hailing from the picturesque suburb of Beverly in Boston, Massachusetts, Caspian’s sound is almost an aural manifestation of their elegant and organised environment. They’re a group very much settled inside their core sound as they celebrate their 16th year as a band. Grand, ambitious, vast – and that’s just the opening two minutes of the first song, Wildblood.  

While it’s easy to be cynical about the state of post-rock in 2020 – Explosions In The Sky are blatantly obvious touchstones – it’s the finer details that make all the difference, such as the pure energy of Justin Forrest’s double-time drums through Flowers Of Light or the panic-induced tremolo guitars of Collapser. Granted, the guest vocals from Kyle Durfey on Nostalgist sound somewhat tired and uninspired. But Caspian find new ground in a well-explored terrain with the off-kilter, reverb-soaked Ishmael and the closing Circles On Circles, which has an oddly submerged quality to it. Caspian’s fifth album is a mixed bag of the inspired and the ordinary, but with an undeniable, undimmed sense of adventure.