Friday, July 31, 2009
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!
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.
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.
Monday, July 06, 2009
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
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.
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.
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!
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