A band who’ve been creating a bit of a stir Stateside, but who’ve not had a chance to ripple the water this side of the Atlantic are For Today. Based around Sioux City, Iowa they have a huge following across the pond. They’re regulars on Warped Tour, have played Hellfest and tour regularly with the likes of Asking Alexandria, Texas In July, Stray From The Path, Motionless In White, We Came As Romans etc.
The band are due to release Wake on October 2nd and it’s the first one to get a proper international release courtesy of their recent signing to Nuclear Blast Records. It will be their sixth album in an impressively short time. Their first release, Ekklesia, came out in 2008. This was followed by Portraits and Breaker in 2009 and 2010. They waited a whopping two years before dropping Immortal and two more before Fight the Silence came out. They’re back on the one-a-year schedule with Wake.
A Christian metalcore band, many may assume that this isn’t a band that would interest them and – in fairness – the first album or so is obviously quite Biblical in terms of lyrical content. However, as the band have grown and developed, their messages have become generically more life-affirming and positive (quite common amongst “-core” bands) with the band making their faith more of a personal issue.
Doing a bit of research on them, it’s become quite obvious that they’ve got a good sense of humour and their feet are planted firmly on planet Earth. Their history has been mildly turbulent (their most recent ex-guitarist left under a bit of a cloud after publicly stating that “There was no such thing as a homosexual Christian.” Lead singer Mattie responded impressively by making his personal phone number available to anyone who wanted to discuss the statement and the band’s stance on matters.
Wake is out on October 2nd, but in the meantime you can have a look at/listen to “Broken Lens” from the album below. As well as the usual crushing tones and twanged bass notes which form a part of the metalcore sound, there’s some great melodic moments in there as well.
I interviewed Matty recently and the transcription will be up in the next few days.