As the Roots Undo

As the Roots Undo is the debut studio album by screamo band Circle Takes the Square in 2004. It was released on CD and vinyl by the Robotic Empire and HyperRealist labels respectively. The album would later see a repress on the LP format in 2014 through GatePost Recordings

As the Roots Undo
Studio album by Circle Takes the Square
Released	January 6, 2004
Recorded	May 2003
Studio	Rockstudio (Brunswick, Georgia)
Genre	Screamo,[1] grindcore, post-rock
Length	44:01
Label	Robotic Empire HyperRealist
Circle Takes the Square chronology
Document #13: Pyramids In Cloth (2002) As the Roots Undo (2004) Decompositions: Volume Number One (2012)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Punknews.org	[2]
Stylus	C [3]
scenepointblank	(8.1/10)[4]
Sputnikmusic	[5]
A Distorted Reality	[6]

The album is a contender for the most celebrated screamo record. Noisey called it "one of the most critically acclaimed cult classics in modern hardcore" which has "long garnered praise from both the press and fans alike for its forward-thinking blend of 90s screamo, fractured grindcore, and experimental post-rock."[7] On June 11, 2010, Sputnikmusic placed it at number 3 on its list of the 100 best album of the decade.[8]

Content and Packaging

The CD is packaged in a four-fold flap with artwork along each side; the artwork was done by band member Drew Speziale.

When asked about his influences at the time of writing As the Roots Undo, Drew Speziale referred to bands that were innovating punk and hardcore through incorporating a lot of melody, including their tour-mates Majority Rule, Pg. 99 and City of Caterpillar and bands who had "really dark melodies going on underneath [an] overtly pretty brutal sound" such as Orchid and His Hero Is Gone, besides less intense artists such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Modest Mouse and Built to Spill.[7]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Circle Takes the Square.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Intro"	0:55
2.	"Same Shade as Concrete"	4:28
3.	"Crowquill"	2:44
4.	"In the Nervous Light of Sunday"	6:17
5.	"Interview at the Ruins"	5:09
6.	"Non Objective Portrait of Karma"	6:46
7.	"Kill the Switch"	9:33
8.	"A Crater to Cough In"	8:13

Personnel

Circle Takes the Square

• Drew Speziale - guitar, vocals, artwork
• Jay Wynne - drums, sampler, vocals
• Kathy Coppola - bass, vocals

Production and Artwork

• Collin Kelly - layout
• Matt Gauck - layout
• Sam Maynard - layout
• Anthony Stubelek - recording

References

1. "Circle Takes the Square - As the Roots Undo". Scene Point Blank. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
2. Punknews.org review
3. Stylus Magazine review Archived June 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
4. scenepointblank review
5. Sputnikmusic review
6. A Distorted Reality review
7. Sailer, Ben (April 7, 2014). ""It's Just a Punk Record from 2004": Circle Takes The Square Discuss the Ten-Year Anniversary of 'As The Roots Undo'". Noisey. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
8. ""Top 100 Albums of the Decade"". Sputnikmusic. June 11, 2010. Retrieved August 22, 2018.

External links

• All Music page — As the Roots Undo on Allmusic