Seizures 2019
[Photo by: Katy Viola]

Seizures achieve both bliss and punishment on new LP—listen

In the press release that accompanies the new album from Dana Point, California, unit Seizures, the band make a statement that their goal was to create a document that “sounded like us and where we live.” We had no idea that Dana Point—located in sunny Orange County—was a de facto war zone. 

Today we’re premiering Reverie Of The Revolving Diamond, the ambitious, harrowing follow-up to the band’s 2013 full-length, The Sanity Universal. From the seemingly bucolic opening track “Mazarine” to the punishing “Of Indigo And Seven Crows,” Seizures are bringing a listening experience to the table that manifests tension in all the most intriguing ways.

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Let’s be honest: The underground is teeming with bands wanting to flex their musicianship in the most awkward ways possible. Whether it’s by cramming too many disparate genres into one album or working all of them into one song, the tedium isn’t only unavoidable; it’s considered acceptable. 

In sharp contrast, the members of Seizures—vocalist Cameron Miller, guitarists Albert Navarro and Nathan Najera, bassist Buddy Porter and drummer Cory Blaine—approach their work more like movie directors. The musical atmospheres conjured are polarizing and jarring—sometimes in one song—but the emotional arc parallels the sonic extremity. The aural jump cuts heighten everything like a film plot, with sections given time to breathe easily and pummel mightily.

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The band will readily admit to embracing all of their influences to achieve maximum joy. There are nods to the frantic energy of Dillinger Escape Plan and Converge. Widescreen guitar vistas developed by bands such as Mogwai and Explosions In The Sky are also harkened back to.

Because Seizures’ sonic breadth and emotional vortex are patently inseparable, it’s best to experience Diamond as with undivided attention. Seizures may have their vision of the universe they wanted to convey. But all that really matters is the movie you are watching in the multiplex theater of your mind.

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“Any musical or lyrical effort put forth by this group is seen as a personal timepiece or sonic memento to be preserved and appreciated,” Navarro says. “Reverie Of The Revolving Diamond is the embodiment of such things. It conjoins thoughts, instances and mindsets of today with those of years long past and evenly blending unrelenting chaos with resolving tranquility in the same fashion.

“People change, grow, evolve and mature over the stretches of time. It’s certainly a hope of ours that fact is evident in our latest creative pursuits. This record is the culmination of five years writing and the stories told are a clear representation of this.”

Listen to the album below.

Reverie Of The Revolving Diamond drops Oct. 4 on digital and limited physical formats on the band’s imprint Sun Terrace Records, and limited-edition cassettes are available via Portrayal Of Guilt.