“This is the last night in my body, for now this skin will have to do”  is what the crowd screamed during the opening song for The Receiving End of Sirens set on Circa Survive’s Twilight Army Tour back in 2006.  I had showed up early not really knowing any bands on the bill besides Circa Survive, who I had came to see, and was pleasantly surprised how quickly I fell in love with the opening act.  They had just walked on and ripped through almost their entire debut album in 45 minutes without any hesitation or hostility from the crowd, as if everyone had come to see them just as much as they did Circa.  Needless to say it was the first time I immediately went up to the merch table for the band and talked to the bass player/vocalist about buying their CD right then and there.  What makes the band so interesting is the fact that they have two major singers along with a back up vocalist who switches between guitar and keyboards depending on the song to really add that extra element to the band.  Although they are on the same label as other Post Hardcore and Alternative bands, The Receiving End of Sirens are anything but a normal band because their music is so hard to define.  It’s got that psychedelic feel to it with the time changes of an experimental band, but also the heaviness of a metal band with folk lined lyrics telling a story on each song.  Unfortunately the band was very short lived and in my opinion would be one of those huge underground successes in the music scene that wouldn’t be millionaires but would be praised by the industry and make a very comfortable living.

The band started out in Boston, Massachusetts where most of the band members had met up through the scene and decided to start this experimental hard rock band.  The probably is they were one short of what they wanted in their band as far as guitar and singer so they recruited Casey Crascenzo to be the main vocalist along with bass player Brendan Brown while Alex Bars the other guitarist sang back up.  Casey and Brendan did most of the lyric writing for their early EP and debut release and before they knew it they had been signed by Triple Crown Records in New York (Home of Brand New) and were putting out their first album.  The first album was titled Between The Heart And The Synapse and featured the hit song “Planning A Prison Break” which received some very decent airplay on Fuse and MTV affiliate stations.  Other popular songs off the album are the epic “The War of All Against All” and “This Armistice” which are frequently played live at almost every show.  However while touring heavily for the album, Casey had been getting very sick and had to keep backing out of the tours to get better and eventually it got to the point where the band might have to move on without him and put it to a vote while Casey had been recovering.  When Casey returned from his sickness (which still to this day will come back to hurt him due to some inherited illness in his family) found out he would have to step out of the band until he had the time to put into this band and recover.  Being a little bitter about what had happened to him he decided to completely leave the band and work on his side project The Dear Hunter which was a story telling style band with continuing albums that would be considered chapters in a story.  While very similar to the sound of TREOS, the band has a very unique orchestra sound to it which makes them very popular to this day, even after the release of Act III which came out early 2009.

The band had no choice but to move on and to work on their follow up album which they decided to title The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi which made reference to a 16th century book by Johannes Kepler who believed that all planets in our solar system produce tones to each other that signal distress to the other planets.  In the case of Earth and probably due to it’s human life forms, it sings Misery, Famine Misery over and over again to the other planets.  Needless to say the album is very physics and astronomy oriented with long epic songs and probably their most technical album to date and unfortunately their last.  The band produced some epic songs in “The Salesman, The Husband, The Lover”,  “Smoke And Mirrors”, “The Heir of Empty Breath” and “Pale Blue Dot” which are all close to 8 minutes each. Also during this album they added long time friend Brian Southall to guitar to replace Casey but he was shortlived because the band had to go on an indefinate hiatus due to some various issues.  Brendan had released a statement that the band had agreed to finish a tour and do some farewell tours because they didn’t want to go on without him in the band since he was a founding member and lyric writer.  The reason for his departure was due to the fact that he was about to have a child with his wife and wanted his priorities focused on that for the time being.  The band did a few farewell shows at The Bamboozle and some local venues near Boston where they played every song they have released, including one’s with Casey who had returned to play with them for those songs he was credited in.  Since then the band has done various projects but nothing serious and for right now has scheduled a reunited show at Skatefest that raises questions whether the band will reunite and get back together, I surely hope so.