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.