| August 1st, 2011 - BIG NEWS! |
| DEMON HUNTER RENEWS PARTNERSHIP WITH SOLID STATE RECORDS
Band Set To Enter Studio In Late 2011 To Record Follow-up To The World is a Thorn
SEATTLE, Wa – August 01, 2011—Next year marks the ten year anniversary of Demon Hunter.
Each of the band's albums and other projects were released with Solid State Records. Both the band and label are proud to announce a deal that will see them continue to partner together.
"Solid State has always been an important part of Demon Hunter," said Demon Hunter singer, songwriter and co-founder Ryan Clark. "They helped market the band before we'd even started writing our first record and they continue to push the band further with each new album. From the very beginning, Solid State has allowed Demon Hunter to do things our own unique way and they've become a vital part of the band's existence. Re-signing was a no-brainer for us."
The first Demon Hunter album emerged in 2002. It's cover, like all subsequent releases (including their live album), was emblazoned with a now iconic symbol that's been tattooed, spray painted, sculpted and otherwise creatively displayed by the band's devoted following ever since. The group blended devastating heaviness with melodic hooks long before it was fashionable.
With close to half a million albums sold around the world, Demon Hunter's unique connection with their fans and steadfast commitment to the presentation, message and musicianship of their output continues to invigorate and inspire. Demon Hunter, Summer of Darkness, The Triptych and Storm the Gates of Hell are all landmarks in the genre. 45 Days chronicled fans across the world (and in the Armed Forces abroad) whose lives have been touched in empowering and breathtaking ways by Demon Hunter's sound and fury.
"I am elated to have the opportunity to continue to work with Demon Hunter," remarked Solid State / Tooth & Nail Records president and founder Brandon Ebel. "Demon Hunter is a core artist for the Solid State / Tooth & Nail family. Ryan Clark is an extraordinary songwriter, musician, artist and friend. We're looking forward to supporting Ryan and the Demon Hunter team on future projects and further developing the Demon Hunter brand worldwide."
Demon Hunter's latest album, The World is a Thorn, debuted with the group's highest placement on the Billboard 200 chart thus far, signifying the continued passion of the "Hunters" and the "Blessed Resistance," as their official fan community is called. They've helped introduce bands like August Burns Red, Haste The Day and Oh, Sleeper on their headlining tours. They've been a mainstay at major Christian festivals. And last year they were direct support to As I Lay Dying.
With a new batch of songs at the ready, sure to inspire those who've drawn close to Demon Hunter classics like "Not Ready to Die," "Fading Away," "Undying," "Carry Me Down," "Tie This Around Your Neck" and more, Ryan Clark and Demon Hunter will return to producer / longtime collaborator Aaron Sprinkle in November to begin work on what will become their sixth album.
"We're knee-deep in the writing process and the songs are sounding as intense as ever," Clark revealed. "We've always made an effort to stay true to our sound, but we like to push the boundaries of that blueprint with each release. These new songs have a lot of varying influences: from viking metal to classic thrash; grooving 90's rock to stompy hardcore. Our goal, as it is with each record, is to blend these influences into one cohesive but unique Demon Hunter album." Posted by Demon Hunter |
| November 15th, 2010 - EURO TOUR DIARY: DAY 16 |
| Glasgow, Scotland
Back up at 2 pm, and the weather in Scotland is miserable. Sideways rain, blustering wind and bone chilling cold. But we're here and alive. We headed down to the venue to load in. The venue is called "King Tuts" and supposedly that is where the band Oasis was discovered and signed. The load in proved to be the most treacherous load in we may have ever experienced. There was a winding metal stair case we had to lug all the cabinets, heads and guitars down. This might not sound that daunting, but with a 90 pound bass cabinet on your back, you start fearing for your life with one slip. Luckily we made it with minimal damage.
After soundcheck we hit the streets to see what we could find. We were pretty close to a shopping area that had the usual UK clothing stores, nothing "native enough" to Scotland for my taste, but when you're only mode of transportation is your feet, you settle with what you can get to. We wandered around with no agenda in mind. I wish I could say we did something truly "Scottish," like hunted Nessie the Lockness Monster, wore kilts, or re-enacted scenes from Braveheart on the hill tops, but fortunately none of that happened. But we did get outside of the venue, which is an improvement from the night before.
We took the stage around 9, and were hoping the crowd would show us a proper William Wallace type show. But unfortunately there was not that much spirit in the room. We had a blast and cruised through the set, and sure there were those who were enjoying it, but it felt closer to those awkward shows of Italy then the riotous Germany crowds. However, its probably a good thing to have that balance, you have Germany to make you feel like you are on the top of the world, and then Italy and Scotland to remind you to stay humble. We love those countries and had a blast at the shows, so don't take that the wrong way, and we met some great people, had some good times, and are honored by everyone that showed up to enjoy the show with us.
The highlight of the show, at least for us on stage, was our Tour Manager and Sound Guy Jeremiah, getting all of us to crack up laughing during the show. It's one of those inside joke things, you know the "you had to be there moments." But we have an inside joke about us wearing "hats," everything from Pope hats, to giant cowboy hats, you name it. Yea, I know, you are scratching your head thinking "why is that funny?" Well, if you were locked in a Sprinter for endless hours with 8 guys all looking to find ways to fill the time, you come up with stupid jokes like "hats." Anyways, so while we are playing the shows, Jeremiah is behind the soundboard making us sound good, and if we need something adjusted (guitars louder, vocals quieter, ect), we look back to Jeremiah and have hand singles (or even sometimes just a look) to let him know what we need. So, during our walkabout in Scotland Jeremiah bought a giant inflatable hat, that looked like a shaved head with a mohawk, that stood about 2 ft tall. So in the middle of the set, unannounced to us Jeremiah blows up the giant mohawk and proceeds to put it on and off at intervals so not everyone is seeing the hat at the same time. At first, Patrick and Ryan see it, Patrick comes running over to me with a giant grind on his face and says "oh man, did you see that hat Jeremiah is wearing?" his words were choked out between laughing spurts. By the time I look up, the hat is gone, and there is Jeremiah looking as innocent as ever. Next Helm and Yogi catch a brief glimpse of the hat, and finally, I got my turn. We were all cracking up. Ryan did a good job of hiding it and focusing on the set, but the rest of us could not help ourselves, we were in a laughing fit.
So if you were at the Scotland show and wondering why we were all laughing like hyena's, well you can thank our sound guy Jeremiah for that.
An American looking for William Wallace in Scotland
Posted by Jonathan Dunn |
| November 11th, 2010 - EURO TOUR DIARY: DAY 15 |
| Nottingham, England
We left our Colchester house around Noon and took our time heading to Nottingham, land of Sherwood forest, Robin Hood and the Friar Tuck. Or so we envisioned. We rolled into Nottingham around 4, and loaded in our gear, already at 4 the sun was setting, the rain was drizzling and the wind was picking up, so our dreams of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor was sidelined for our attempt to stay dry and warm. I know I had made a pact to get out and see the cities, but Nottingham seemed to be the exception, no one was quite up to headed out to seek adventure. Not to mention it was an early show (we played around 8:30), so add in getting dinner to the mix and there wasnt a giant window of opportunity.
So unfortunately I don't have too much to report from Nottingham (I will talk about the actual show later). So I guess it is only natural for me to fill this blog with what I did with my day, even if it isn't that exciting. While we were in Colchester I found a bookstore, I had been meaning to read the new Dave Mustaine (Frontman of Megadeth's) autobiography. I meant to pick it up before we left the states, and looked for it in the airport, but wasn't able to find it. And I wasn't able to find it in some of the other countries we were in, but luckily being back in England, we can find a bookstore with books in....well...English. So I spent the day yesterday reading "Hello me...meet the real me." I will preface by saying, that even though Mustaine is now a Christian, the book is PG-13 or even R rated in content, so please don't take this as an endorsement if stories of debauchery of his youth and foul language isn't something you want to dive into. But the book is a pretty quick read, and I put down 250 of the 350 pages in less than 24 hours. Being a Megadeth fan, its cool to read some of the backstories of his life, his struggles, his music and his redemption in his own words. So yea, nothing exciting to report of pre-show adventures in Nottingham, no archery, toppling kingdoms, or even a giant cartoon bear with a bald head known as Little John.
The venue, "Rock City" was was a multi-layered venue, with what seemed like 4 or 5 levels of different venues. The show was fun. The stage was pretty small, not the smallest we have played, it was deep enough to fit all our gear on stage at least, but the front of the stage held the main PA, monitors and packed with gear. But the crowd was great, and there was some guys right out front that took an English Flag and drew the DH skull on it. It made for quite a warm welcome to Nottingham (even if there was no Robin Hood). We jammed through the set, and once again threw in the Alice and Chains cover of "Down in a Hole." we've done the song twice now and had a blast. The song is a much different vibe from anything else we have played live, but we have a blast playing it. I am guessing at some point someone will put a video of it up on youtube if anyone is interested in checking it out. We had a blast hanging out with everyone after the show, but unfortunately there was a strict 10 pm curfew and security ushered everyone out after about 20 mins or so.
After the show, since we didn't have any time to explore Nottingham, we decided to make the 5 hour drive to Glasgow Scotland so we could have a day of seeing a city. Unfortunately our plan slightly backfired. We left around midnight and rolled into Glasgow around 5 in the morning and started our hunt for a hotel room. To our surprise there was some sort of convention in town and all the hotel rooms were booked up, we spent quite some time driving around to the different hotels, and calling 24 other hotels to see if there was vacancy, before we finally settled for driving 30 kilometers outside of the city to get the last remaining 5 hotel rooms we could find. Finally at 7:30 in the morning we rolled in and went to bed. Oddly enough, being that we went to bed at 7 am, we were back on a sleep schedule with Seattle, which was just a taste of we have to look forward to when we arrive back in the states and start battling jet lag.
An American in search of caffeine in Scotland.
Posted by Jonathan Dunn |
| November 10th, 2010 - EURO TOUR DIARY: DAY 14 |
| Colchester, England
We said our goodbyes to London this morning and headed to Colchester, which is the oldest recorded town in all of England, or so they claim. We rolled into town around 1 and set off on a journey to find some food. Colchester is a beautiful town. Very quaint, with a lot of small shops, and even smaller roads. Some of the back street shopping areas had the feel of the mock shopping towns they have at disney world, except the streets were hardly as wide as a single car. We strolled around admiring the city and some of the old buildings. It's very cold here in England, it feels like Seattle, except about 15 degrees colder, and much like Seattle, seems to rain in the morning, and become overcast in the afternoon.
We all gathered back at the venue to load in. I must say this is one of the cooler venues we have played. It was an old Church built in the early 1200's on a hill overlooking the city, surrounded by a graveyard whose tombstones outdate even our grandparents. The building it's self had been decommissioned as a church and was now a venue, there was a placard on the wall that read "This building was erected as a Church. Deconsecrated it isn't a church anymore. One day, however, it may become a ruin. If so, it will be the ruin of a Church." The church wasn't that big compared to the scope of the Churches we have seen along our travels, but it did have a big bell tower, that we sweet talked one of the security guards into letting us climb to the top. The stairs were incredibly small, steep and narrow, the hallway hardly big enough for my shoulders to fit through when they were squared. Not a place for someone with claustrophobia. But we made it to the top with a beautiful view of the city, the bell tower, combined with the Church being located on a hill provided one of the best views of the entire city. As we were admiring the view, the security guard casually says "this bell tower is where the story of Humpty Dumpty came from. There was a cannon located at the top of the tower that was named "Humpty Dumpty" that fell from the top and broke into pieces on the ground." It was very cool to be at a spot that originated a song that very kid in America can recite. You would think they would make some kind of land mark, signage, or something to document the spot, but no, nothing other than a security guard casually mentioning it off hand.
The venue still has most of the statues, icons, paintings, ect. Our green room was filled with stained glass windows of notable figures, one of which was Joan of Arc. The acoustics at the venue were great, the giant vaulted ceilings let the sound build and rumble through the entire building, a rare opportunity for an American band to play in such a place for sure. The show was one of the most intimate shows DH has ever played, but we had a great time, played a good set, the sound of the room was great, and we met some great people after the show and hung out for a while. All in all we had a great night, and the people that were there showed us a good time.
We tracked down a hotel in the town, and went in to get some rooms, they told us they had a house with 4 bedrooms down the road we could use instead of getting 4 separate rooms, so we went for it. The house looked like a turn of the century small apartment building and had its own quaintness about it. The water pressure in the shower, was scarcely harder than getting spit on, so trying to wash soap or shampoo from your hair was a daunting laborious task, but we are all clean and ready for bed.
A soapy American in England.
Posted by Jonathan Dunn |
| November 10th, 2010 - EURO TOUR DIARY: DAY 13 |
| London, England (Day Off)
We left the hotel at 11 am ready for our day off of seeing downtown London. You aren't allowed to drive the big Sprinter/Tour Vans downtown, not to mention parking would be nearly impossible, so we set off to navigate the London Tube system, which is a series of 13 underground subways that criss-cross around the city. I have spent time in the New York subway system, but the London one seems more complex. We were all nervous about making our way through the system as a bunch of tourists, but luckily we made our way around fine and never got lost. We started off our day by heading to Oxford Circus, which is a nicer shopping area close to the heart of downtown London. While some of the guys hit the stores, Jeremiah and I went sight seeing through the area. After walking around, we decided to grab some lunch at a Pizza Hut. Thinking we could grab a quick slice of pizza. To our amazement Pizza Huts in the UK are like 4 star dining experiences. There is waiters all in black uniforms, menu's and the dining area looks more like a high class Starbucks than the cheap pizza delivery service we are used to. One thing we have noticed across our journey of Europe is that European's do not like extremes. Everything is very mild, such as drinks, Soda's are barely colder than luke warm, ice is a luxury that is you are lucky you can score 3 ice cubes, precisely counted before put in your drink. The candy is never super sweet, the sour is never that sour, the ketchup is more like watered down tomato sauce, everything tastes slightly off from the extremes we are used to as Americans. I can't tell you how badly I crave waffles from Wafflehouse in the south. With HOT coffee, SWEET syrup and all the grease and salt my American body can handle.
After a couple hours of Oxford Circus, we once again ventured into the tubes to head to Camden Town, which is more of a seedy Rock n Roll type part of town, or atleast as we had been told. We were in search of a metal shop in that part of town with hopes of finding all those metal T-shirts, patches, and garbage you can never find. The store was hardly what we had built it up in our heads to be. It was more of a stripped down Hot Topic focused on metal memorabilia. But the town was a cool area to see, it had more of an old town feel with very unique facades on the front of the buildings, as well as some hand crank operated locks to control the water level of the rivers that also serves to transfer the boats from one level to the next.
After our time there, we headed back in the tubes to get to Holloway Road, where Peter, our driver, had a friend from Hungry who worked at a Tattoo parlor called "Haunted." We all piled into the shop, nearly consuming their entire lobby, and all waited in line while each of the 8 of us got matching Tattoos. The design is of the stars of the European flag with the DH "V" logo for the new record and the year 2010 scripted into it. Just as a little commemoration of our first European adventure. It took nearly 6 hours for each of us to get the tattoo done. Afterwords we walked down to a local American styled dive, had some food, and shortly there after sprinted back to the tubes to make our trek back across the downtown before they shut down for the night.
All in all London is an amazing city, which I am sure comes as no surprise to anyone, the city is way too big to try and soak in on just 1 day off. But we had nearly 2 nights of solid sleep, and we are ready to hit the road and get up to Essex and continue our European adventure.
An American "minding the gap" in London Posted by Jonathan Dunn |