Circa Survive

Philadelphia's Circa Survive took shape when ex-Saosin frontman Anthony Green joined forces with guitarist Colin Frangicetto, two scene veterans from the local emo and hardcore circuits who sought the unbound creative license offered by the mid-2000s neo-progressive wave. Following a pair of Equal Vision releases, the group secured an Atlantic contract and delivered the widely praised Blue Sky Noise in 2010, which debuted at number 11 on the Billboard 200. The band sustained its presence on alternative and hard-rock tallies throughout the ensuing decade, sharpening its progressive-hardcore aesthetic across Violent Waves (2012), The Amulet (2017), and Two Dreams (2022).

Once Green and Frangicetto recruited second guitarist Brendan Ekstrom, bassist Nick Beard, and drummer Steve Clifford, the expanded lineup cut its debut album, Juturna—titled after a Roman goddess—for Equal Vision in 2005. Extensive road work, including Warped Tour appearances, helped the record move a solid 100,000 units.

A 2007 Coachella slot set the stage for On Letting Go, issued at the end of May and reaching the Top 40 of the Billboard Top 200. Departing Equal Vision for Atlantic, the quintet issued its third album, Blue Sky Noise, in 2010; the set traded much of the earlier hardcore edge for a more melodic indie-rock direction and climbed close to the Top Ten. The self-released fourth effort, Violent Waves, surfaced in 2012 and opened at number 15. Sumerian subsequently signed the band, reissuing a deluxe edition of Violent Waves before putting out the fifth album, Descensus, in November 2014. “Lustration,” released in July 2017, preceded the Hopeless Records-issued sixth studio album The Amulet that September. In 2021 the group collaborated with producer Will Yip on the EP A Dream About Love, which introduced electronic textures and featured the expansive single “Imposter Syndrome.” A companion EP, A Dream About Death, followed in 2022; both were collected on the full-length Two Dreams later that year, coinciding with the announcement of an indefinite hiatus.