Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We watch the seed germinate with a sense of awe and admiration for the natural order, the cycle of birth and growth, and yet we arguably forget about the instance in which the seed was planted, what it took for the initial stream of thought which cried out to be heeded, that we should reach out beyond the violent skies that surround us and touch instead a sense of gratifying eternity and once held ghosts of the solar lights.

The ancients once believed that the solar lights that skim and dance in the night sky at certain times of the year were the souls of our ancestors, the Aurora of the divine and the heavenly, in that belief they saw for themselves the seeds that were planted above, and how as long as someone watches over them, then the end of the story never materialises.

With a sense of strident beauty, Become The Sky’s debut E.P., Aurora, pays homage to the thought of growth, the ever consummate progression of re-birth and the initial flame of excitement that conjures up images of fiercesome passion. This would come as no real surprise to the music lovers of Liverpool who have seen many a sincere artist unveils themselves from the ashes and produce a set of new songs that thrill and leave the heart breathless; yet for Anne Marie Howard, Joel Sawyer, Mike Simms and Marcus Mayes, Become The Sky is a call that reaches inwards as well, it seeks out the point of the capacity of the mind and the capable nature that overthrows personal doubt and tyranny.

We all are subjected to such reasoning; we wouldn’t be human if we didn’t feel the urge to be concerned of the prospect of what the Aurora may show us, what secrets it may reveal.

It is in that reveal that the songs Violent Skies, End of the Story, Ganwyd and My Favourite Escape live outside the realm of the stringent and the inner world, and instead the intensity of the performance offers up the starlight, the vast array of depth and colour, a collage of experience held dear and forthrightly delivered.

Aurora is a gifted example of how to defy the shackles of the earth and other’s expectations, a tremendously enjoyable listen.

Ian D. Hall