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BAND MEMBERS:
Trevor Phipps – Vocals
Ken Susi – Guitars
Buz McGrath – Guitars
John Maggard – Bass
Derek Kerswill – Drums
If you're searching for brutal and
aggressive metal, you've met your match with
UNEARTH. Combining elements of hardcore,
thrash, and extreme metal - while also never
overlooking the importance of
thought-provoking lyrical ideas and concepts
- UNEARTH has steadily become one of the
leading lights in heavy metal.
Look at the careers of all great metal
bands, and there is a certain album that
pushed the respective group to the next
level. The March, the forthcoming fourth
full-length from UNEARTH is bound to be that
album for the band, as it contains all the
expected elements from earlier UNEARTH
classics, while also managing to drive their
sound forward.
Hailing from just north of Boston, UNEARTH
originally formed in 1998 with a three-man
core - singer Trevor Phipps, guitarists Buz
McGrath and Ken Susi – and were subsequently
joined by bassist John “Slo” Maggard. Derek
Kerswill’s union with the band marks
UNEARTH’s latest addition, resulting in what
many consider to be the band’s most potent
line-up of all.
Over the years, UNEARTH has issued a steady
stream of modern metal classics, including
such full-lengths as 2001’s The Stings of
Conscience, before signing with Metal Blade,
and issuing 2004’s The Oncoming Storm. All
the while, UNEARTH continuously crisscrossed
the globe, becoming one of the hardest – and
most consistent – touring bands in all of
hard rock. Over the years the quintet has
played in the US, Canada, UK, Australia,
South America, Mexico, Japan, Europe
including the Netherlands and their first
ever headlining trip to Russia, and has
appeared not once, but two times each on
such renowned metal fests as Ozzfest and
Download. They have also appeared on
International festivals such as Rock Am
Park, Rock Am Ring, Loud Park, Wacken and
others. In the process, UNEARTH has toured
alongside some of rock’s top names,
including Slayer, Slipknot, Killswitch
Engage, Hatebreed, Lamb of God, and many
others.
But with the arrival of 2006’s III: In the
Eyes of Fire, UNEARTH scored their most
worldwide successful album yet. Produced by
Terry Date (who has worked with Pantera, The
Deftones, and Soundgarden), the album
debuted at 35 on the Billboard Top 200
Charts. And according to Phipps, the album’s
purpose was a simple one. “It seemed like a
lot of bands were falling in that trend,
where more of the harder hitting bands
wanted to gain more fame, and put more
pop-oriented sounds into their metal and
hardcore. That record was a statement for us
– to show people you could still write a
heavy, mean record and continue a solid
level of success.”
The album instantly earned unanimous glowing
reviews, as Blender.com hailed it as “Easily
a front running candidate for Metal Album of
the Year,” while Revolver Magazine called it
“A stunning accomplishment, one that
repeatedly pushes the boundaries of
heaviness, yet contains enough sonic and
lyrical layers to give the songs depth and
staying power.” One of the highest
compliments came in Rolling Stone Magazine,
from Slipknot frontman, Corey Taylor. “It’s
like Anthrax and Megadeth rolled into one.
It’s everything you want in a great metal
song.”
After wrapping up an extensive tour in
support of III (including some of their
biggest headlining shows ever) and seeing
their first-ever DVD, Alive from the
Apocalypse reach gold status in Canada
shortly after its release in early 2008,
UNEARTH got to work on their latest
offering. Back on board was the producer of
their earlier albums, Adam Dutkiewicz. The
end result is an album that includes such
metallic gems as “Grave of Opportunity”,
"Crow Killer", "My Will Be Done", "Hail the
Shrine," and "We Are Not Anonymous." The
lyrical content has once again stepped into
a challenging realm as they range from
overcoming personal hardships to questioning
government, politics and organized religion.
Phipps claims "This is our most crushing
record to date. We pulled back some of the
speed on this album just a bit so we could
make the tunes more pummeling." He added,
"The record has everything we have brought
to the table in the past, the thrash, stomp,
groove, melody and classic metal elements,
but the song writing continues to improve.
We are all proud as fuck of this album."
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