I have been pondering this review for a little while now because I was not really sure on how to evaluate their release, Digest The Moon. This release is very diverse with how the keyboards flow with the vocals and how the guitars flow with the drums.  With varying time signatures and mood swings, it is somewhat schizophrenic but finally I think that I have been able to grasp the words for this album.
The band Sidewise began in May of 2001 with Marcus playing bass and Nico playing the drums along with another guitar player that later left the band. The next addition was Matt, Marcus's bro, on guitar. They started fiddling with some songs and then Jason, the keyboardist, came into play.  Except for Nico they all went to the same high school which made practicing easier. Marcus then came up with the idea to have a second guitar player, enter former Hydro guitarist Scotty who is also from the Kansas City, Kansas area. Still there was a problem within this cohesive unit; no singer. The band decided to have Nico do the vocals thanks to a previous backyard show (which I attended). Now, there was the problem of no drummer for live performances, which was eventually satisfied by Jeff. The band then went on to Kansas City's Battle of the Bands sponsored by Ernie Ball and a chance to record this album. Thus we are up to date.
Songs such as Lotion and Downpour have varying textures to the music with spacious guitar effects provided by Scotty and enchanting keyboards by Jason. The vocals also are more than pleasant from Nico using his very emotion filled voice to express what is exactly going on in the song. Now, when I say emotion filled voice I am not referring to an Emo type of voice because this is certainly not Emo or even Screamo. Matt also provides some grit to the background vocals with some great death styled vocals. Not to leave out the stellar bass work done by Marcus, his unique style is very much a nice change in Heavy Metal music.
To try and put this band in a genre is seemingly impossible by my judgment. Almost everything about them is very unique. The highlights of the album have to be Lotion, Downpour, and Rising Ocean. My only suggestion to the band overall is to let that growl from Matt surface more often. Good luck my brothers of Metal!