Still afloat

Things have gone quiet after a good month where we played Germany again and then did what was supposed to be a weekender with Almost Home. It ended up just being two shows with them (and Through Solace playing as a four-piece like in Germany), but was still a really nice weekend, they are good guys and a solid band, and their new full-length "Closure" is really exceptional. Anyway, we played Birmingham, it was quiet but always good to see Davey and Karoline who want us to play at their wedding! And also some of our old friends Dougle and co from Scotland, he has been a friend to this band for about three years now, a real good guy.

After going home on Saturday, where I watched some films and what not, we went out on Sunday with minimal gear, in Rohan's girlfriend's tiny car, all the way to play in Chatham, Kent. It was an incredible gig we felt. The set was fun enough but the whole drive there and back was filled with good times. The Canadian band Means has always been special to us and we listened to their CDs all the way. As the sky darkened their lyrics really took me in, and related to our drives and our travelling. Aside from that, it's worth saying the show was great, the promoter really nice to us and we saw our great friends from Still Dreaming. They are so friendly it blows me away. They have a new demo and want to play shows with us. I saw some other bands too but didn't catch all of their names and don't have a flyer to hand. Lonewolves were awesome. I had heard their name before but they played not long before us and were really dark and intense, and a four piece as well!

We don't have any shows now, and that suits us fine because we're writing a batch of new songs. Since our last album came out we've toured more than ever before and although we tried to write, haven't really made much progress. I expect that to change now and for us to line up something new to release next year. On the live front we are looking at booking a number of weekenders and tours but probably won't be doing anything major for the rest of 2009. You can still talk to us on myspace, twitter etc and we still have all our merch for sale. Until next time, bye.

Luke Nicholas

We are the restless, we are known by what we seek- Means.

Fill-in Guitarist wanted

Hey everyone

We're looking to recruit a fill-in guitarist, able to practice in South Wales a couple of times per month, preferably with good gear and their own transport. We would like someone to be available for tours that our regular guitarist can't attend.

If you can help us email throughsolace[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk

Thanks!

Clocking in with a Winter update

Winter is upon us, and there are a few things to talk about in the world of Through Solace.

You can now follow us on twitter, @throughsolace, for regular updates.

News is as follows-

* Last week we were flown out to play at Metalfest in Germany, an annual show, this year headlined by Becoming The Archetype. Was a great show and really good time, catching up with a number of our German friends like Raffi and Tobe. It was also great fun hanging out with Mike from For Today, there are some cool pics of the show on myspace somewhere. The journey back to Wales wasn't so good, our flights got delayed and then cancelled, causing all manner of problems, but that's what happens sometimes!

* Rob has returned to University so will not be able to play every single show from now on. But, he is still part of the writing process and we will get fill-ins for tours he can't make. The songwriting is going great and we are hoping to maybe put out another EP or online release next year before we venture into doing a second full-length. Still, no firm decisions have been made yet, let's see how it goes.

* We played a last minute local show the other day with a great Welsh band The Death of Her Money, search them up on myspace. Good to see a number of our friends show up. We gave our regular set an exercise, but also played a new as yet untitled song for the first time ever. It seemed to go down well.

* Our next shows are a mini-tour/weekender with the melodic hardcore band Almost Home from northern England (Derby I think), an incredible band who really impressed us when we played with them before. Their record 'Closure' is out, now, hit up their myspace and buy it. The shows are:

20th November- Birmingham @ Wagon and Horses

21st November- TBC

22nd November- Chatham @ Tap N Tin "Mugfest" with Lavotchkin, Feed the Rhino and others

This will be our first time on the road since the It Prevails tour back in August.

* We have been gifted an opportunity to return to the USA next year. We are currently considering it, but it would only be a short trip rather than a full tour. Watch this space!

If anyone is coming out in November, that would be great!

Summer drawing to an end

This blog has predictably fallen quiet again, but this is what we have been doing since the beginning of August.

We toured for almost the whole month alongside It Prevails, playing 21 shows in the UK and Belgium.

You can read all about it on our myspace and also see photos, although it's been pretty hard to track them all down (can't even find a 'crew shot'!). The tour itself was an incredible experience, the longest and best tour we have yet done. We met some amazing new bands like Heart In Hand, Directions, Dellamorte, Campus and countless others, and a load of awesome people who stepped up to help us out. The tour wasn't without its challenges as there were some close calls with the law (ha!) and our bass player missing the first few dates necessitating us to play as a four-piece in front of one of our biggest ever audiences. It's all part of the Through Solace luck. A few weeks later and we've finished the tour successfully with an appearance at Summerfest in Belgium with Misery Signals. We also played at the Greenbelt Festival in Cheltenham after tour ended, our third appearance there and it was great as usual to see familiar faces including our friends in Conduit.

Soon after tour ended it became clear that we would not be able to complete our scheduled tour alongside Many Things Untold and Heart In Hand. Unfortunately we have had to pull out of that tour due to work commitments. We are lucky in that we are able to tour and have jobs, but the timing was simply too close to the It Prevails tour for it to work. Our agent Gavin is working on other ideas for the rest of the year so stay tuned for that.

Next up is a trip to Germany at the end of October to play at 'Metalfest' (yet another one?!). Becoming The Archetype is headlining. We have always done really well out there so we are pleased, the fest is flying us over and then we jump in the van of our friends in Never Back Down who will drive us to a post-festival show in the Netherlands, at Utrecht. Cross another country off the list!

Right now we are working on new material in a slow process taking in new ideas and influences. Expect our music in the future to continue to mature, be more diverse and hopefully you will enjoy it!

Tour Poster

Hello August!

We are on the verge of August, and it still isn't summer yet here in Wales. I guess we are not going to have one this year!

It's all good though, because next week we will be embarking on the biggest tour of our career so far, doing 3 weeks with It Prevails. They are a band from Portland, Oregon and surrounds in the USA, surprisingly influential for a group that only has 2 records out. Their influence can be heard on tonnes of contemporary bands and when we asked them last year to come over this summer they gave a straight up 'let's do it'. It's a real one-off for them because they aren't able to do long tours anymore, and the UK wasn't even on their radar until we made it happen for those guys. They are super nice dudes and are well reputed for their live performances.

Fast forward 6 months and we have booked our own tour with them, taking in about 16 UK shows and a very short 3 date run in Belgium alongside an incredible post-hardcore band called Campus. The UK shows are a good spread, and also include some nice spots at Metalfest in London, and Metalfest in Glasgow. Which is funny, considering neither of us are metal bands. Through Solace in particular usually gets a pretty blank reaction from the metal kids, but saying that we have done really well in the past at metal shows. We will also be playing an all dayer in Wrexham (north Wales represent!) called 'A Day of Chaos' which will be headlined by Your Demise.

The tour will end in style, playing at 'Summerfest' in Belgium alongside cool bands like Misery Signals and The Number 12 Looks Like You. It's our first time playing with Mis Sigs so we're happy about that.

In any case, flights and work permits have all been finalised and we will see everyone at the first date in Kent, on August 7th.

Some lucky people will be treated to a DIY practice room show in Kent on the 6th as well- 30 people in a tiny room- it's going to rule.

I'll finish this blog post by asking everyone to come out and see us on tour! There are shows all over the place, all cheap door entry.

Reviews of The World On Standby

A load of reviews of our full-length "The World On Standby" are circulating around the internet and in the press. Happily, we can say most of them are good and we are really grateful!

We do need all feedback, good and bad though, so if you want to let us know what you think of the album drop us a line.

Here's a selection of what people have been saying about the record-


Praise for 'The World On Standby'
"The focal point of this album lies with melodic, emotional hardcore which also has a slight metallic edge. There are very few modern hardcore records like this which set a band aside from the pack at the beginning of their career, and on which everything musically works together and in which nothing could have been done better." All Schools

"Cardiff melodic hardcore band Through Solace, show signs of pure excellence on their debut album. Tracks like We Were So Sincere, Almost and Taylor are good enough to make anyone think this band were selling thousands. Tides 2 which is probably the best song in this genre since Misery Signal's World and Dreams. The band's genre is toxicated with fashion, but this band are their own, as long as they don't let their foot off the pedal. Their next album could be unbelievable, and a time for their Welsh peers to step aside." Defiance Zine

"The World On Standby has a sound typical of Strike First Records...powerful, raw, brutal. In all this, the style of the group manages to make inroads among the avalanche of sound, to distinguish Through Solace from their peers." Beehave

" Displaying a sound somewhat reminiscent of Beloved, this album is a well formatted formula of melody and metallic hardcore. The track of all tracks is “Taylor”. Through Solace really demonstrate their talents on this particular ensemble and the lyrics definitely exhibit the positive message they always try to display. Discussing the problems in life and learning how to cope with them, Through Solace make it clear that they are on this planet to play music with optimistic significance.
The World on Standby is certainly a fine start for these guys and hopefully they will move on to bigger and better things."Decoy Music

"Taking influences from bands such as Underoath and Shai Halud and their own unique sound, Through Solace has constructed a CD that fans of the hardcore genre will not want to miss. Brutal in its delivery yet full of inspirational themes and lyrics, this is one heck of a disc."
Pure Grain Audio

"The 12 tracks of 'The World On Standby' send us back to the golden era when Poison the Well took their first steps and then Hopesfall gave life to the masterpiece 'The Satellite Years', which this album revisits in a modern way. Whoever is fed up of the normal and monotonous parts of this genre will find a nice surprise with the freshness of this album." Sound Magazine

"Through Solace have worked long and hard to get to where they are today. The first five tracks are all of a similar hardcore style with sparse inserts of gang shouts and clear vocals. Luke stated "The song "Taylor" is about making the most of the chances in your life, in memory of a number of friends who have died at a young age. It then seems like they are more willing to showcase their more technical song structures of melodic and metallic hardcore. My favourite song is “Landmark” with its atmospheric instrumental start, range of vocal styles and tempo shifts. This is a solid effort." The Metal Resource

Praise for 'The Stand'

"As with other UK bands, Through Solace have taken the crunch and sweaty browed aspects of hardcore and twinned them with a sense of melody that, while never touching, say, Devil Sold His Soul's sense of aural majesty, comes pretty close in terms of it's depth, composition and energy." Terrorizer Magazine

"The Stand points the Welsh five-piece out as sure-fire potential stars of the future. Rarely, if ever do bands of Through Solace's emerging stature sound so powerful and effortlessly crushing, yet The Stand sounds absolutely colossal." Rock Midgets

"This release still shows off all the things great about Through Solace, that hardcore speed, passion and intensity; but it's now been coupled with an added ability to incorporate melody and much more metallic edge. Plus the guitarwork has really come alive in the midst of their trademark crunchingly thick and chunky brutality." Cross Rhythms

Taking stock of things

It's been a while. We have been working on a load of new ideas, and making preparations for our summer tour. It will be our biggest tour yet and marks the end of a 2 year growth period which we initiated with a new line-up, aiming to propel Through Solace to a better level. Our aim was to become better at our instruments and to be able to write and record a full-length. We eventually achieved this, but during the process we had to all become better musicians. However, I want to avoid making us sound like a soulless machine; the past two years can be summed up as awesome times. Spiritually we have grown. Musically we have seen Sean become a quality drummer, from a position where he had never played a show and basically just hyped himself up to get into the band! Our friendships and maturity have developed massively, and most importantly we are still having a great time.

Right now we are coming out of a quiet period where we focused on our education, jobs etc, into a busy summer. I am really content with it, because we will be knocking a few more acts off the "bands who we have always wanted to play with" list, namely Misery Signals, and also we are going to Europe again, and playing the Greenbelt Festival in England which is a show we always enjoy and a place where we have a warm welcome. See our myspace for all those dates and more.

Last week we played with some huge metal bands, supporting Despised Icon. It was a very unusual line-up to play on, with the metal bands way heavier than us. We were still stoked though and it turned out to be really fun, so thanks to Mike for putting us on.

Next week we are playing 2 shows with Ella and Cadences. Ella is a post-hardcore band who were around back when we formed, and Cadences are a new band who invited us to do these gigs.

First up is a free show at Le Pub, Newport on Friday 10th July. Followed by The 2 Pigs, Cheltenham, on Saturday 11th July. See you there!

A new band you need to listen to

It's all about Continuance. Ex-members of Means and Saints Never Surrender (kind of the whole band!).

In the meantime, we have a new grey version of the popular 'rays' shirt for sale in the Facedown store. Go and check it out.

We also have merch in the UK, selling at our bigcartel. If you can buy something it really helps us to get our van back on the road.

So we are just chilling now, writing songs, jamming and watching the reviews of our album come in! We'll be back playing shows again in about a month's time. Thanks to everyone who reads this!

May Update

Hi everyone, sorry it's been so long without an update on this blog.

We have been busy promoting our new album and would like to thank everyone who has got a copy.

Reviews so far have been very promising, it's just a matter of getting them all together to post up.

Right now we have been taking a break from playing shows because Rob is finishing at University with exams, so we are using this time to carry on working on new material. As we type this we are in Smallsy's new studio in Newport (called Terraforma) working on some ideas and demos.

See you in July when we return with our first show back, alongside DESPISED ICON in Newport (TJ's, July 1st).

Pre-order our CD !

You can now pre-order our album 'The World On Standby' over at the Facedown store.

The Strike First Records website has an awesome splash page. If you click the pre-order link you'll be taken to some deals that include a ltd edition t-shirt!

2009 Promo Photos

We took our first photos of 2009 (by our friend the Mike) in sunny Barry.

Visit our myspace to see more!

Release show aftermath

Major thanks to everyone who came to see our 'CD release show' for The World on Standby. I hope everyone who got a copy enjoys it. It's the only chance to get one before the official release date through Strike First Records which is April 28th.

The show did not go originally as planned as no less than 6 bands had to pull out for genuine reasons over the course of us trying to get a 3 band line-up together. We're sorry about that . We did our best and it was good that people still showed up. Story of our life is that things always go against us, we are used to it. But that made it all the more rewarding when we were able to play the new songs and have a physical product to give to people. The atmosphere was incredible and it was a really good time for everyone involved.

Thanks goes to Storm The Walls for playing at such short notice, and Steel Mind for doing a set. Thanks as well to Ash without him the album wouldn't have happened!

Anyone that couldn't make it, you should pre-order our album! We appreciate everyone's support and are truly grateful to anyone who listens to our music.

THE WORLD ON STANDBY cd release show

This Friday is the first chance to get our record 'The World On Standby' before it comes out on April 28th.

So everyone who has ever supported us, please come down, £4 in gets you a CD. They look incredible, Dave Quiggle has really done an awesome job capturing the celestial theme that we wanted. The original line-up for the CD release show fell apart to an extent, but it's worked out so that it will still be an awesome moment for us and for everyone who has supported this band since 2005. Excitement is building! If you can't make it you'll be able to pre-order our album at the Facedown Store with a sweet merch deal. You can hear 3 songs from the album at our myspace.

In the meantime we just did 2 shows on the weekend, in Coventry with BWP, Almost Home and Bound By Blood (check out all of those bands!) and then in Birmingham on Sunday which was a hardcore all dayer for Reign Supreme and 50 Lions' tour. No less than 4 South Wales bands played! It was a good time although for us we stood out musically on the line-up.

Busy times, hope to see everyone on Friday.

Action-packed week

Does anyone still read this? I hope that at the least, the kid from the Philippines who always messages us on myspace reads this, or our best friend in the world who lives in Alabama. It's funny how support comes from the strangest places. But anyway...

We just got back from a mini-tour in northern England with a German hardcore band called Never Back Down. We have known them on the internet for a few years (I don't really know why) and they decided to do a run of shows in the UK. We couldn't do a full tour with them at this time of the year but we did joi for 4 dates. It kicked off nicely with a free show in Newport at our favourite local venue Le Pub, which was amazing with some incredible bands. People went off. We then joined the Germans in Derby, Stoke and Birmingham. Not alot of people came out unfortunately, but enough were there to make it worthwhile. Thanks to our friend Davey at JesusxCore zine for making it happen and his girlfriend Karoline for letting us stay at her house. We also are giving out a major thanks to Never Back Down, it was great watching them every night and hanging out with them. We always get on well with bands from Mainland Europe.

We have now set a rule- no more playing as a four piece! We did these shows again missing our guitarist/vocalist Rob who is tied up with University work. Also we rode the whole journey in one car with gear all over ourselves, and borrowing Never Back Down's equipment. Not fun, but we made it and were grateful to play shows and not lose money!

Listen to Never Back Down here.

Label News- Facedown Records have after much consideration and prayer launched a new initiative called More Than Sound where they are promoting organisations and missions that do service and good works, both by raising awareness and also financially. Be sure to check that out. I love our label family.

Album News- We don't have a firm release date for 'The World On Standby' yet although April 23rd is the provisional date. More on that and a release show soon!

That's about it for now. More local shows next week, including Cardiff which we are really looking forward to. Then a week later we are doing a show

Change of Heart up now

We've posted up the first new song from our forthcoming debut The World on Standby, it's a song called "Change of Heart" and you can listen over at our myspace.

There is also a new layout and sneak peak of the album cover!


We previewed this with a sneak album preview called "Standing By" which saw a random track emailed to the first twenty people that got back to us, which had a really good response.

Apart from that we have 3 local shows coming up:


Monday 16th February- TJ's, Newport with Nochaa and others


Friday 20th February- Hobo's, Bridgend with All for the Fall and A New Day *Free Show*


Monday 23rd February- Le Pub, Newport with Throwing Knives, This Distance, Never Back Down * Free Show*


Followed by these dates:

Credit crunch and its affect on the band!

Yep, as I predicted at the start of this blog it happened and one of us lost his job because of the economy. It's not the end of the world though, we just bought a new van! It's pretty nice as long as it doesn't quit on us. We are going to try it out on these February shows. It says 'Rollin' all over the world' on the front which is awesome.

*Picture is not our actual van, haha!

Never Back Down UK dates in February

We have been friendly with a German hardcore band called Never Back Down for a few years now. Finally, those guys are coming over for a UK tour. They aren't well-known in the UK yet but we have heard they are really heavy and really good live, so these shows promise to be good. Through Solace won't be doing the whole tour with them but we are going out with NBD on the following dates below. This includes returning to Scotland one of our favourite places to play shows, and playing Stoke for the first time. The Newport show on Feb 23rd is one we are putting on ourselves, is totally free and will have a sweet line-up.

23rd February- FREE SHOW @ Le Pub, Newport

25th February- @ The Twisted Wheel, Glasgow

26th February- @ Harry's Bar, Stoke

27th February- @ Eddie's, Birmingham

Tim's Magic Abilities

We have finished doing all the vocals and music for our record. Tim is now mixing it and using his powers to make us sound good! Haha.

We are pleased to say the album is sounding really big, and can't wait to let people hear it. Rob got to grips with his own vocal parts today and his clean singing adds a whole new dimension to our sound. Excited! It's going to surprise alot of people. Everyone has been ill the past few weeks with flu so feel bad for us. Tomorrow we'll be watching the mixing and adding some pianos and acoustic guitars and stuff. Hopefully a track off the album will surface on myspace in the coming weeks and months, stay tuned!

Bad idea- taking vitamin c, vitamin b, pro-plus and 2 flu capsules, and a cup of coffee : (

Into the studio

We are currently holed up in Sonic One Studios, in a village called Llangennech which is in South-West Wales, near Llanelli. That's the desk! It's an awesome studio that we have used twice before, and Tim Hammil is an amazing professional to work with. He doesn't record heavy music very often at all (which is part of what attracts us to him), but he has seen our band develop over the past few years, from recording demos when we didn't know what we were doing, to recording this full-length which is how we want to sound. As far as I know, the only other notable album that Tim has done in terms of heavier music is Anterior's debut, which came out last year or so on Metal Blade Records. They are a way different sounding band to us, but you can hear what a good job he has done in making them sound how they should.

So sadly we don't have any studio videos or funny stuff to give you (besides, I broke Kev's video camera on tour). Just to say, we are working really hard at getting this right. We just about finished drums today, and they're sounding nice, warm and powerful. Everything is going to plan, and this full-length will finally show everyone what we're doing and the role we're trying to play amidst the thousands of bands. It's really good fun as well!

Luke

Welcome to a New Year

What's up everybody? 2009 is a brand new year and to celebrate, we have set up a blog. We organise alot of our presence on the internet through our myspace, and that's still the place you should go to listen to our songs and read announcements and news and whatever else we have to say. But we thought that we would start a blog as a way of sharing thoughts and moments that we couldn't really express on myspace.

The Year we have witnessed and the Year ahead
2008 was an eventful year for this band. All 5 of us went through changes and challenges in our lives, some of us leaving University, some of us starting University, leaving jobs and starting new jobs, a new bassist joining the band, a new CD and later in the year a new label home and a first ever trip to the United States. In between those challenges we did not play as many shows as we have in the past. However, we all matured as musicians and band members in many ways and were able to develop our sound and abilities in a way that we had failed to do so in the past. 2008 was an unusual year but it laid the foundations for a fruitful 2009.

The year ahead of us is sure to feature all the usual personal and spiritual events that will shape us. We are looking forward to getting this album out and sharing it with everyone. It feels like its going to be our biggest year yet- and also our hardest. Everything we go through will serve to make us stronger. That's our collective view as we go into this new year.

3 albums that remind us of our tour in America
* Further Seems Forever- Hide nothing
* Strongarm- The advent of a miracle
* Brand New- Deja Entendu

3 good things that have happened in the past few days
* Sean's drum kit from Dark Horse Percussion arrived (well, most of it).
* We received Christmas gifts and John Piper books from our label.
* We finished writing the lyrics for our upcoming full length.

3 things we will face in 2009
* Some of us may lose jobs/have to quit or change employment.
* We will have even less money than usual.
* We will tour more than we did in 2008 and will be able to share our message with more people.

Stay tuned for future updates! Thanks for reading.