CIRCA SURVIVE: Descensus (ALTERNATIVE ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

In ten years, Circa Survive has affirmed its status as a must-have in alternative American rock with inspired albums whose maturity and potential was confirmed by the success of "Violent Waves" in 2012. Circa Survive's fifth album is called "Descensus" and is described by its members as the most aggressive of the band's albums.

Circa Survive has always shown a strong taste for diversity, between power and sensitivity, which gives the band's albums its great emotional strength and multiple charms. With "Descensus" the band does not deny its leanings and gives its own definition of energy and darkness. Circa Survive demonstrates its modern style marrying punk, alternative and psychedelic with a very well set rhythm section and the voice of Anthony Green, a kind of cross between Claudio Sanchez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, always so expressive. The bewitching ambiences are perfectly restored by the Americans, whether they are light ('Phantom') or noisy ('Descensus'), and the more moderate rhythms have always some relief ('Child Of The Desert').

The aggressive orientation of the album is skillfully declined with a blackness openly expressed in its raging form ('Schema') or a more suggestive expression notably through the mastery of hovering atmospheres. Anthony Green exorcises his old demons and draws his inspiration from the roots of his troubled and addictive past with dark and moving lyrics, as in 'Nesting Doll' and his "I dont want to feel like this Ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, again(...)", or in the melancholy that leads to pain, with for example 'Only The Sun'. If all the tracks do not have the same finish and do not shine in the same way ('Quiet Down' or 'Sovereign Circle' are less striking) the coherence between the ten tracks is finely chiselled and imposes a solid album.

"Descensus" is the strong testimony of a painful biography that is still very present in Green's memory who draws from it a contrasted musical material. Circa Survive rely on a dense and intense textual content that accompanies and transcends a melodious and catchy musical inspiration. 'Descensus' is probably the most difficult album to understand in the American discography, but it demonstrates its stability and consistency. - Official website

CIRCA SURVIVE

DESCENSUS

AUTRE LABEL

ALTERNATIVE ROCK