City In Fiction

Who?

An experimental indie-rock band hailing from Florida. Their new EP, Laughing In the Dark is available via both Amazon and Itunes, and was also featured in the Free Music Fridays feature.

How Is It?

The more I listen to this EP, the more I like it. Originally it struck me as somewhat re-hashed, but as I gave it more attention, facets of their sound that I'd previously ignored became less subtle and more impressive. The guitarist's bouncing riffs throughout the tracks give the instrumentation a Minus the Bear vibe, and the vocalist's bouncing rhythms give nods to everything from Circa Survive and In:Aviate to The Stiletto Formal. "Dark Holes and Moonlight" sounds especially similar to what I imagine Minus the Bear would sound like with Ryan Randall (In:Aviate) belting out the notes, and the vocal delivery on "The Vizzendrix" sounds similar to that of The Stiletto Formal. However, the band manages to make it sound anything but contrived, and the many creative tendencies of this EP save it from falling into any kind of mediocrity or repetitiveness. In the end, Laughing In the Dark shows quite a bit of promise for this budding band.

Recommended If You LikeIn:Aviate; I Am Alaska; Minus the Bear; Circa Survive; The Stiletto Formal; All the Day Holiday; The Constellation Branch - Absolute Punk

"Overall some good indie-rock" - Locomotion Radio

Unless you know just about every band in the world that has a myspace or purevolume page, chances are that City In Fiction will be a new band to you. I had never heard the band mentioned before, and a quick look at their myspace page shows that the band don’t seem to be getting much exposure. Is this because the music doesn’t warrant exposure, to put it simply: No.

So, the music, well I suppose they remind me a bit of ‘War All The Time’ era Thursday, and I can definitely hear shades or Armor For Sleep, and I guess they remind me in ways of a lot of American ‘dark-emo’ bands.

The EP kicks off with ‘Dark Holes and Moonlight’ and it’s a song which basically sums up the style of the band, it has the dark lyrics, intricate guitars, and vocalist Albert’s vocals fit the music perfectly, everything just seems to work. I think this song in particular would not sound out of place at all on Armor For Sleep’s ‘What To Do When You Are Dead’ which is definitely not a bad thing.

Next song is ‘I Liked It Better When You Didn’t Speak’ which shows the band’s slightly poppier side, it maintains it’s dark undertones, while being really uplifting at the same time, and is definitely one of the highlights of this EP.

This is followed by ‘Send’em To The ‘Lectric Chair’ which again delivers more of the same, it’s dark without being too dark, it’s poppy but without being too poppy, it’s technical but without being too technical, but again, the song can’t be faulted and is another excellent track.

Next up is ‘Shave Damage’ which is the track that reminds me of Thursday more than any other, Albert could easily be mistaken for Thursday’s Geoff Rickly, to the point where I’m half expecting him to start screaming about a car crash.

The EP closes with ‘The Vizzerdrix’ which is again, more of the same, and ends the release the way it began. It’s a good end to a good EP.

Technically this band are amazing, and they have found a sound that suits them absolutely perfectly. The only criticism I do have is that with this EP, if you’ve heard a couple of tracks, you’ve pretty much heard them all. That being said, this is a debut EP, and the band have room for improvement, and I think with a little bit of diversity between songs, this band could be onto something really, really special.

As I mentioned earlier in the review, the band don’t seem to be getting much exposure, so let me be one of the first… Hey, there’s this band called City In Fiction from Miami, you should 100% go and check them out.
- Alter The Press