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.