Emerging from the fracturing of Open Hand, Saosin (alongside acts such as Underoath and Silverstein) outlined a new wave of emo saturated in harsh atonal dissonances and highlighted by pop hooks buried under searing noise. The group has released two albums throughout the 2000s each with a remarkably different character.
Saosin was founded in 2003 in Newport Beach, California by rhythm guitarist Beau Burchell, lead guitarist Shekoski, bassist Zach Kennedy, and vocalist Anthony Green. Within a couple months of their formation they released their debut EP “Translating the Name”. The album spread like wildfire through Internet blogs and social media websites like MySpace. This release was praised on various forums for its original approach on emo and became a near instant success shooting to No. 27 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers.
Later that year drummer Pat Magrath (who allegedly was only the band’s studio musician) and bassist Zach Kennedy (later member of Ashlee Simpson’s backing band) left the group and were replaced by Alex Rodriguez and Chris Sorenson respectively. Once the lineup coalesced, Saosin began performing their material live to ecstatic reviews. Their energetic and heartfelt performance punctuated with intense screamo outbreaks garnered comparisons to the visceral punk group Glassjaw. Once Rodriguez officially joined, the group graduated from gigging around local venues to a nation wide tour with bands like Boys Night Out and Anatomy of a Ghost.
Saosin experienced their biggest lineup change in early 2004, losing their vocalist/frontman Anthony Green. Feeling excluded from the writing process and losing interest in the band’s style Green formed his own group, Circa Survive. Saosin was still on tour during Green’s departure and subsequently hired Story of the Year’s Philip Sneed to complete the remaining dates as lead singer.
The group held auditions for a new lead singer following their tour and shortly after chose Detroit musician Cove Reber to take the position. Reber was only 19 years old at the time, but impressed the members with the demo “Mookie’s Last Christmas” a recording Burchell mistook as the work of Anthony Green.
Though their were some hesitations among Saosin fans if Reber would be a good fit, most doubts were cleared once the band hit the road and showcased their new frontman at gigs like Warped Tour and Taste of Chaos.
Saosin was signed to Capitol Records in 2005 and issued their self-titled EP in the Summer of that year. The band kept busy touring and continually expanded their audience, opening for big name acts like Avenged Sevenfold and Coheed and Cambria.
After competing their co-headlining dates with Anberlin the group hit the studios to record their debut feature length. Their self-titled debut came out on 26 September 2006 and following it was a seemingly endless tour. They played shows across the US with Bleeding Through, Senses Fail, The Sleeping, Senses Fail, and Alexisonfire among many others. In 2007 the band would hit venues in Europe, Australia, Japan, and Indonesia.
Once Saosin returned to their home in the US they followed up their international touring with more touring, which would last until mid 2008, starting a 9 month break from live shows. Once the break was up they embarked on a tour with Underoath and The Devil Wears Prada in October 2008. The “Grey EP” came out that month and was sold during the tour.
Their sophomore studio album “In Search of Solid Ground” came out on 9 September 2009. The album was produced by Butch Walker and John Feldmann and was released through Virgin Records. However the band departed from Virgin not long after they joined and went in a more “DIY” direction.
Saosin has been relatively inactive since 2010, but have reportedly recorded new material during this period. In 2014 former lead singer Anthony Green re-joined the group to play a show for Saosin’s 10th year anniversary.
Dylan Gossett
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