As the Roots Undo [EP]

Crestfallen | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 15, 2003)
• Original Release Date: 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: EP
• Label: Robotic Empire
• ASIN: B0000A4G83
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #94,952 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Untitled

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Concept in disguise, December 17, 2005

By 

Arienette Catalano (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: As the Roots Undo (Audio CD)

Guess what guys?

I'm pretty sure this is a concept album, though I may have just listened to it a bit too much and over-analyzed everything. But it makes sense! Take my metaphorical hand: I'm going to walk you through this.

Intro: A song about the birth of a thought in the head of a man.
Same Shade as Concrete: Our man begins to question Religion and the validity of god. in this process, a new idea is sparked...
Crowquill: Man (let's just call him Jerry for the lovely sake of reference) decides that he will kill himself. He will end his own life to find out if god exists. He writes a note (Or a crow-quilled threnody) and plans for his departure.
In The Nervous Light: Jerry goes down a path of recollection before his death. He silences himself, closes his eyes, takes a breath and jumps out the window. But our friend Jerry didn't think the whole thing through. He regrets his decision on the way down, but it's too late.
Interview at the Ruins: Jerry is no more. The living public is temporarily alive with excitement over the recent suicide, since it gives them something to talk about. Jerry is buried.
Non-Objective Portrait of Karma: The entire opening is to signify ascension. Jerry was successful, and he is indeed rising to heaven above. But when he arrives, he doesn't like what he sees. You see, heaven isn't all its cracked up to be. It is full of terrible things, angels who feast upon your energy because God is corrupt, and that's how he runs the place.
Kill the Switch: Longest song on the album for a reason. This song is about the murder of God. Jerry forms a mutiny. Everyone in heaven takes down the corruption that is God to try and acheive a true utopia, a perfect society. But they forget that perfection cannot really exist, since the definition of something so abstract varies. Heaven had always needed a leader. So they appointed our friend Jerry to take the place of God.
A Crater to Cough In: Notice the similarities between this track and the first? Of course you do. Thats because its a form of rebirth. Jerry is God. But over time, he becomes just as corrupt with power. It becomes cyclical. The angels stage a mutiny against Jerry at the end, and he is, in turn, killed again in the search for perfection. As jerry is dying for the second time, he is again full of regret. But there is nothing he can do but accept what he had become and fade into memory.

DAMN that was a lot of typing. Okay. So thats my theory. Maybe i'm crazy, maybe not. But lyrically, this album exceeds anything. And Musically....it's so difficult to capture the beauty and violence this album portrays. There are only three people in this band. TALENT. This is definately the greatest, most powerful album i have ever heard. EVER. it is impossible to describe, but you will NEVER forget it. Buy it. Do it. Now.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrifying depth in a shallow scene, March 10, 2006

By 

The Caster Kid (L...Caster PA.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: As the Roots Undo (Audio CD)

Grind and screamo have never been creative genres, merely impressive for their offensive emotional discharge and brutal technicalities and tone. Yet Circle Takes the Square have interwoven both genres with the delicate fingers of poets and visionaries. The cloud scraping level of musical mastery is only eclipsed by the foresight of the form and the classic range of the lyrical content. Dual screamers punctuate their nearly Shakespearean word play with vocals that shred, cut and call from separate sonic corners leaving anyone caught in between gorgeously decimated.

This is not the last gasping breath from the decaying lungs of a slowly dying scene- this is a choral battle cry straight from the lungs of a beast that is only begining to wake.

Circle Takes the Square stands alone.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars life is lowly anonymity, March 20, 2005

By 

pick squeal "bleak_outlook" (MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: As the Roots Undo (Audio CD)

In a word: cathartic.

I saw these guys play a transcendent set a couple of weeks ago, when they click on all cylinders they are the best live band out there. Something about their music just sucks you in. 'Cos you can't necessarily understand what's going on all the time, but there's enough there to keep you interested. Their actual sound is hard to pinpoint, there are blast beats and minor key guitar riffs that don't make sense. "In the Nervous Light of Sunday" is the masterpiece. "Kill the Switch" is another highlight.

The he/she singers squawk out really elaborate poetry, weaving in and out of each others vocal lines and occasionally striking a PERFECT balance (wade in the water child...). I wonder if the songs are written around the words. That would explain alot. The guys lyrics are arresting, every now and then it gets pretentious with all the cliche' metaphors about boughs and ruins. Ambitious.

Yeah, screamo is lame sometimes, but CTTS are more than screamo. Mention must be made of the elaborate, beautiful packaging. The guitarist/singer designed it, so... steal this from a chain store. If you don't get into at first give it another shot, what you put in is what you get out.