Sideshow Cinema — a math-influenced metalcore trio spread across Washington D.C. and Maryland — wander through the abstract. Consider the artwork for their debut LP, Palace, streaming in full below. It’s a watercolor painting that’s summarized by the band’s mantra “that in the end, you get what everyone else gets.” The narratives forced over somersaulting riffs and vicious drums spell disarray, along with a search to end the resultant panic. A departed companion follows vocalist Sam Freeman around like an unwelcome houseguest through the album’s half-hour, inflicting more harm than helpful memories. The band builds their Palace around these themes of abandonment and wandering.

When stacked against other Flesh and Bone alumni, like the glimmering tumult of Greet Death or the towering spires built by new Equal Vision signees Lume, Sideshow Cinema offers a wrecked headspace tangled by the past and not just production values. Palace is their future contract, traded in a political minefield and paid for by vicious self-awareness.

Palace will be released digitally and on cassette April 13 via Flesh and Bone Records.

Tags: Flesh and Bone Records