The CityLight The Flame

Quietly toiling away under the name In Search of Symmetry, Melbourne’s The City have rebranded themselves with this new release.

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There’s no evil connections with their old material or horrible dramas with ex-band members, it’s just that the threesome—Josh Nicholson, Vaughan Sullivan and Mark Ferguson—have raised the bar when it comes to their music. They’ve even recorded at a Nashville, Tennessee studio that’s produced many award-winning artists and albums to help get their creative juices flowing.

The album kicks off with a pop-punk sound, but as it moves along, the band start to get a little heavier, especially in tracks Writing On The Wall and Jack Fire where they experiment with their post-hardcore sound. Exploring themes like the roads taken in life, lost relationships, and partying make this a pretty standard release thematically, but the power and passion in The City’s delivery make it stand out above the rest. 

The Melbourne pop punk scene is about to get a shake-up with the release of Light The Flame. It’s melodic and catchy with endless opportunities for sing-a-longs but heavy enough for all the post-hardcore kids looking for their new favourite band.

Moving through the record, there are plenty of catchy hooks and riffs, especially on the start of the title track Light The Flame, but the focus of the album is definitely on the vocal range of Vaughan Sullivan. He drifts from melodic singing, to some heavier screams and then to the rap/spoken word style of lyrics throughout the album, and while he has worked hard on his vocals for this record, it will be good to see how he develops these different styles as The City progresses. 

The Melbourne pop punk scene is certainly about to get a shake-up with the release of Light The Flame. It’s melodic and catchy with endless opportunities for sing-a-longs but heavy enough for all the post-hardcore crowd looking for their new favourite band. As a debut release, Light The Flame will definitely get a lot of people’s attention and it will be interesting to see where they go from here. 

Catch The City playing House Of Jack on Thursday 19th September at SiBar, Melbourne.

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STANDOUT TRACKS: Writing On The Wall, A Moment, Jack Fire