A New Beginning

Equal Vision Records has been known in the hardcore and punk scenes for years, giving us acts such as Ten Yard Fight, Floorpunch, Coheed and Cambria, and more recently, scream heavy acts such as Fear Before the March of Flames and Alexisonfire. While the “screamo” style is still popular, it’s nice to have a change. Enter Philadelphia’s Circa Survive, the love child of former Saosin frontman Anthony Green and Colin Frangicetto. Circa Survive play aggressive indie-rock on their debut Juturna, showing that screaming isn’t needed to make a good album.Circa’s music is well orchestrated, allowing the listener to lose themselves. Each song is stylistically different, without sounding like a totally different band Tracks like “The Great Golden Baby” have an overall mellow feel, with crescendos helping to drive the song, before going into a track like “Stop the Car” featuring quick staccato drumming and a more upbeat tempo.

One of, if not the strongest points for Circa Survive are Anthony Green’s vocals. His range, while not as extensive as Cedric from the Mars Volta, is pretty impressive. He is able to yell in key, at an extremely high pitch that blends with the music well. Anyone who has seen them live can attest to the fact that this isn’t being done with the use of “auto-tuning,” which makes his falsetto that much more remarkable.

When Green left Saosin, people wondered if his next project would be as good. While not as poppy as Saosin, Circa Survive is an amazing band that plays imaginative indie rock. They have a style all their own, which is necessary when so many groups sound exactly the same.