Is has been a little over a year now since LoveHateHero released their first album, titled “White Lies.” They released an EP album in 2005, titled “Just Breath”, but didn’t receive much publicity until they toured the country a couple times and got signed to Ferret Music. Now that they are more well known people are starting to get into them more and more.

They are currently touring the U.S. with Alesana, The Chariot, and Sky Eats Airplane. This is one of the hottest tours out there right now seeing that Alesana didn’t become known until about a year ago and now they are already big enough to headline. Sky Eats Airplane, unique from the other bands on this tour, features the some wicked Electronic beats with help from their Mac. This mix of hardcore and electronica is becoming a hit and a lot of new bands are popping up that sound like imitations of Sky Eats Airplane (as far as I know Sky Eats Airplane was the first hardcore/metal band to use electronica and make a name for themselves).

Here is a live clip of LoveHateHero performing the song “A Last Fairwell” in San Francisco, CA (Beware: not the best sound quality). This song is pumped full of energy and they explode at the beginning with the whole band rocking out. Notice the guy on the left head banging like a madman. That automatically receives an A+ performance right there. The bassist has a Mohawk too, which even makes them more awesome. The vocals are right on in this clip and the screams sound even better than on the c.d. version. These guys are super catchy but at the same time have some technical guitar rifts that will impress you.

From the first time I heard these guys I was addicted. I had heard their name somewhere before but didn’t bother checking them out. One day I ran across them and I was blown off my feet. The first thing that caught my eye was the fact that they were from Indianapolis, Indiana, hometown to one of my old favorites, Haste The Day. The thing that makes these guys unique and different than the rest of the Christian/Hardcore bands on the bandwagon is that they throw in a touch of what we like to call “experimental” (whatever that means). The way I take it when a band considers themselves to be “experimental” is that they add an aspect to their music that is unexpected, or against the norm of the other genres they fit under. The thing I hate the most is when a band calls themselves experimental then sounds like just every other band out there. This is definitely not the case with Gwen Stacy. If you don’t trust me, go listen to the song “Hoy Empezamos Una Vida Nueva. (don’t ask me what that means…something about a new life). That song will most likely tweak you out! Another thing that makes these guys stand out from the rest is that they are only a four piece. That is really hard to come by these days. Having only four members means you have only one guitar to count on and nixes the idea of having a keyboard. If they can pull that off and sound as heavy as they do, I am very impressed. Catch these guys on tour now with Still Remains & Catherine. I plan on seeing them at the Madison show in a little over a month. My expectations are high and I have no doubt that they will exceed them.

 August Burns Red is a five piece Christian metalcore from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  The band was formed in 2003 and released an E.P titled Looks Fragile After All a year later in 2004.  They were signed on a smaller label when they released this E.P. but didn’t start to get big until they were signed to Solid State Records in 2005, releasing their first full length album Thrill Seeker.  Their latest album, Messengers, was released in 2007 and has already sold over 50,000 copies.

A couple weeks ago I saw August Burns Red at The Rave in Milwaukee, WI for the first time. They are currently on the Take Action Tour featuring The Human Abstract, The Bled, From First To Last, and the headliner, Every time I Die.   I had seen videos on www.youtube.com of August Burns Red and from what I saw they looked like an awesome band to see live.   They opened with the song Composure of their new c.d., Messengers. They blew up with energy starting their performance and that energy didn’t fade until the time where they walked off stage. They played a lot of heavy breakdowns and people were going nuts in the pit. The band held perfect balance throughout their set and all of the instruments sounded right on. The drums were probably my favorite out of all of them- damn that guy is talented.  In the middle of their set between songs they announced that they are a Christian band and that they play for Christ.  They told the audience they love all of them no matter what they believe and if they have any questions they can come talk to them after the show.  I really respected this.  There are a lot of bands out there who claim to be Christian but just label themselves that to get attention.  All in all, once you see these guys live it will change your standards of a good live performance.  If you think these guys are intense on c.d. you don’t even know what intense is. Go see these guys live and you’ll crap your pants!

August Burns Red- “Composure” Video Shoot