SO WHO ARE DEAD LETTER CIRCUS ANYWAY?

Since Dead Letter Circus have been in the news lately — they just signed to Sumerian Records and they’ll be touring with Intronaut and Animals as Leaders this Summer — I thought I’d take a moment to get ya’ll familiar with their maximum rockage. They’re Australian, which is why you likely haven’t heard of them despite one EP and one album release since their inception in 2005, and to be honest they’re not really metal at all. So if the lack of growled vocals, chugga-chug or sweep-picking bothers you, probably best to stop reading right now.

For the rest of you fans of good music, let’s listen to some of the bands choice cuts. Dead Letter Circus remind me a lot of Karnivool, and not just because the two bands share a home country; their rock-based sound is steeped in hard-driving rhythms, delay-soaked atmospheric guitars and soaring vocals. I’d also throw Dredg and A Perfect Circle into the influences pile, so if those bands mean anything to you then Dead Letter Circus will likely resonate.

Here’s “Big” from their 2010 full-length This Is the Warning:

“Disconnect and Apply” from their 2007 self-titled EP:

This is the Warning album-opener “We Divide:”

Rinse, repeat. You can see where this is going. Dead Letter Circus definitely have “a sound,” one thing they do, but they do it exceedingly well and it’s all their own. It’s easy to see how they’d fit in well with Animals As Leaders, Intronaut and Last Chance to Reason.

Those in North America will become a lot more familiar with This is the Warning when Sumerian reissues here on July 26th, but having had that album for a while (ya know, the Internet is all global and stuff) I’m more looking forward to their next album of new material, whenever that might come (2012, I’d guess). In any case, good band, good signing, and I’m stoked to see them live this Summer.

-VN

-VN