Comeback Kid

                       

         
         A blue-collar punk band from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Comeback Kid (otherwise known as CBK) combine declamatory vocals with a hyper-speed rhythm section and two riff-happy guitarists. The Canadian band formed in 2002, with lead singer Scott Wade joining forces with lead guitarist Andrew Neufeld (also the lead singer in the Winnipeg-based Christian hardcore act Figure Four) and adding rhythm guitarist Jeremy Hiebert (also a member of Figure Four), bassist Cliff Heide, and drummer Kyle Profetta.


                         

      


While Neufeld and Hiebert continued touring and recording with Figure Four, Comeback Kid managed to put together a self-released six-song demo that earned the band a deal with California's hardcore label Face Down Records, which released the band's debut album, Turn It Around, in the spring of 2003. By now, Comeback Kid (having already gone through several transient bassists) had settled down with new bass player Kevin Call.



                                            

                                      



 After extensive touring throughout Canada, Europe, and the United States in support of the record, Comeback Kid signed with the influential punk and emo label Victory Records in 2004.



                               



Victory released the band's second album (produced by pop-punk legend Bill Stevenson of Black Flag and Descendents fame), Wake the Dead, in February 2005. Following another bout of extensive touring, including dates supporting Madball, Sick of It All, and Gorilla Biscuits, Wade announced his resignation from the band in early 2006. His last show with Comeback Kid was that summer, after which the band continued onward as a quartet with Neufeld taking over lead vocal duties. The slimmed-down band then issued Broadcasting... in February 2007 and returned to the road. Released the following year, the concert recording

                             



                              

Attack!!! Attack!!!

Not to be confused with the myriad Attack Attack(s) that were all the rage at the outset of the 21st century, the Ohio-based Attack Attack! was a screamo/metalcore outfit that held true to a strict set of Christian beliefs. After forming the band in 2005, members Austin Carlile (vocals), Johnny Franck (guitar, vocals), Andrew Whiting (guitar), Nick White (bass; later replaced by John Holgado), Caleb Shomo (keyboards), and Andrew Wetzel (drums) inked a deal with Rise Records and released their debut, Someday Came Suddenly, in 2008.









They also released a video for the album's lead single, "Stick Stickly," and drew some heavy criticism from publications like The Guardian, which likened the band's synchronized headbanging to "a pack of novelty dashboard toys who've been nailed to the dashboard of a milk float." Following the old adage that any press is good press, Attack Attack! continued touring in support of the record, sharing stages with the likes of Black Tide, Burn Halo, and Escape the Fate along the way.





Carlile left during the 2008 tour and was replaced by former For All We Know vocalist Nick Barham, who remained with the lineup for one year before making his own exit. Rather than hire a new singer, Attack Attack! promoted keyboardist Caleb Shomo to the frontman role and began working on a new album. The self-titled Attack Attack! appeared in June 2010, marking Shomo's debut as lead vocalist. Later that year, Johnny Franck announced he was parting ways with the band, leaving Shomo to handle all of the vocal duties. The band's first album as a quartet, This Means War, appeared in 2012, and also featured Shomo not only handling all of the vocals on the album, but the production as well. ~ Chris True & Andrew Leahey, Rovi

   

As Blood Runs Black

Based out of Los Angeles, CA, As Blood Runs Black melds several extreme metal subgenres (death, black, thrash, metalcore) into their own violent style.









Formed in 2001 and comprising vocalist Chris Blair, guitarist Ernie Flores, bassist Nick Stewart, and drummer Lech(e), the band issued their first album, Allegiance, through Mediaskare Records in 2006.                

Asking Alexandria

Spanning two continents, three names, and nearly a dozen members, Asking Alexandria are a band whose short career seems to be more about change than anything else. The brainchild of guitarist Ben Bruce, the band was originally formed in Dubai in 2003 under the name Amongst Us, which soon changed to End of Reason before eventually settling on Asking Alexandria in 2006.



 They cemented the name change with their self-released EP, Tomorrow.Hope.Goodbye. The following year they released their first full-length album, The Irony of Your Perfection, through Hangmans Joke. Shortly afterwards, Bruce left Dubai and returned to England, resulting in the dissolution of the band. In 2008, Bruce formed a new band around the name Asking Alexandria.



Unlike its vaguely post-hardcore predecessor, this incarnation of the band was a pretty standard screamo/metalcore act, with chugging guitars and alternating singing/screaming vocals. Finally settling on the lineup of Danny Worsnop (vocals), Camron Liddell (guitar), James Cassells (drums), and Sam Bettley (bass), the band set to work on a touring blitz of the United States with bands like Alesana, the Bled, and Evergreen Terrace. In 2009 they signed with Sumerian Records and released their first album with the new lineup, Stand Up and Scream, in the fall of that year.


 

The band would find mainstream success in 2011 with the release of their sophomore album, Reckless & Relentless, which peaked at number nine on the Billboard charts. They returned in 2013 with a more mature hard rock sound, smoothing off some of the metalcore and electronica influences, resulting in their more focused third album, From Death to Destiny.










                

Drop,Dead,Georgeous

   Differentiating themselves from the 1999 beauty pageant movie of the same name with the strategic placement of a comma, metal/post-hardcore outfit Drop Dead, Gorgeous came together in Denver during the mid-2000s.





The group was comprised of Aaron Rothe (vocals/keyboards), Danny Stills (vocals), Danny Cooper (drums), Kyle Browning (guitar), Jake Hansen (bassist), and another Dan (guitar).

 

Using the Internet to their advantage, they signed with Rise Records in September 2005 after being discovered by the label through songs posted on their MySpace and Purevolume web pages. With half of their members still in high school, Drop Dead, Gorgeous had yet to do any extensive touring before or soon after the January 2006 release of their EP, Be Mine, Valentine. The band's debut full-length was issued that May.





Titled In Vogue, it was produced by Kris Crummett (Fear Before the March of Flames, Anatomy of a Ghost). Summer was then spent on an extensive nationwide tour, hooking up on various dates with bands like Scars of Tomorrow, Folly, and Calico System. By the year's end, Drop Dead (whose oldest member at the time was still only 20) had inked a deal with the Interscope imprint Suretone and began work on their sophomore effort with producer Ross Robinson.



At this point, the band was also trimmed down to five members: two Dans were out (on guitar and drums) and another was in (Danny Passera on drums). The concept of their 2007 release, Worse Than a Fairy Tale, is a fictional account of a serial killer on the loose in a small town.          

     


     

As I Lay Dying

    As I Lay Dying are a metal-hardcore crossover band from San Diego, California. The group formed as a trio in 2001 with vocalist Tim Lambesis, drummer Jordan Mancino, and guitarist Evan White, and shortly thereafter released Beneath the Encasing of Ashes. A split CD with the American Tragedy followed the next year. In 2003 the band signed with Metal Blade and released Frail Words Collapse. After the album's release, White left the band and the remaining core of the group, Lambesis and Mancino, drafted two guitarists to replace him, Phil Sgrosso and Nick Hipa, and also landed a bass player in Clint Norris. The new lineup recorded Shadows Are Security, released in 2005. As I Lay Dying next issued A Long March: The First Recordings in May 2006, which included their 2001 out of print debut, along with two versions of their songs from the 2002 American Tragedy split. The band then spent that summer on the Sounds of the Underground metal-hardcore tour alongside acts like In Flames, GWAR, Trivium, and Cannibal Corpse.

                

Soon after, Clint Norris left to pursue life as a family man and Josh Gilbert replaced him on bass. With the addition of Gilbert's vocal harmonies, the band's sound became more melodic, and in August 2007, the group released its fourth album, An Ocean Between Us. In 2009, the band released a three-DVD collection called This Is Who We Are. The set included a documentary, a live gig, and assorted videos and tidbits. Arriving as it did after a two-year hiatus, it was welcomed enthusiastically by the band's near fanatical fan base. In 2010, As I Lay Dying returned to record store shelves proper when the band issued the 11-cut Powerless Rise on Metal Blade.






The next year, to commemorate their tenth anniversary as a band, As I Lay Dying released the compilation Decas, which featured the band covering songs by influential acts like Slayer and Judas Priest, as well as some new material and remixes. In 2012, the band hit the studio with punk icon and producer Bill Stevenson to record its sixth album, Awakened, which arrived on Metal Blade later that year.

              

The Devil Wears Prada

             Dayton, Ohio Christian metalcore act the Devil Wears Prada took their name from the novel and movie, but rebranded it to fit their anti-materialistic ethics. Formed in 2005, the band consisted of singer and lyricist Mike Hranica (who handles the death growl vocals), guitarist and vocalist Jeremy DePoyster (who does the clean vocals), guitarist Chris Rubey, bassist Andy Trick, keyboardist James Baney, and drummer Daniel Williams. This lineup recorded the 2005 EP Patterns of a Horizon, which was self-released with individual hand-painted covers. Signing to Victory Records' positive-themed subsidiary Rise, the Devil Wears Prada released Dear Love: A Beautiful Discord in the summer of 2006. After selling more than 30,000 units of their debut, they went back to the studio and began plugging away on 2007's Plagues. With Roots Above and Branches Below followed two years later. They followed it with a concept EP about the apocalypse titled Zombie in 2010. Both of these latter releases debuted in the Billboard Top Ten; the band was also a star live attraction, they headlined -- and sold out -- their own tours for three years running.
                

   In the summer of 2011, they headlined the Van's Warped Tour as a precursor to the release of the band's fourth album, Dead Throne, which was produced by Killswitch Engage's Adam Dutkiewicz and released in September of that year. The group's first live album, Dead&Alive, followed in 2012. the Devil Wears Prada began sessions for their fifth proper album in early 2013, working with producers Matt Goldman (Underoath) and Dutkiewicz again in an executive role. The results, 8:18, appeared on Roadrunner in September 2013. Hranica and Rubey also have an experimental grindcore side project band called xGUMBYx.