Sevendust never follow a linear path. Instead, they continue to bulldoze a lane of their own with a proven
one-two punch of rumbling grooves, unpredictable riffing, and stirringly soulful vocals unlike anything else
in hard rock. As a result, their music connects straight to the heart as evidenced by their full-contact live
shows and diehard “family” of fans. It’s why they’ve been around since 1994, tallied global sales of seven
million, logged three gold-selling albums, delivered three Top 15 debuts on the Billboard 200, and
garnered a GRAMMY® Award nomination in the category of “Best Metal Performance.” They’re the rare
force of nature who not only graced the bills of Woodstock and OZZfest, but also Shiprocked! and Sonic
Temple and some of the largest stages around the globe. Along the way, they’ve notably collaborated with
everyone from members of Deftones, Daughtry, and Staind to Alter Bridge, Periphery, and Xzibit. 2020
saw them deliver one of the most-acclaimed albums of their career with Blood & Stone, which Metal
Hammer christened “Sevendust’s best work in years” and Outburn dubbed “everything a Sevendust fan
could want.”
However, the Atlanta quintet—Lajon Witherspoon [lead vocals], Clint Lowery [lead guitar, backing vocals],
John Connolly [rhythm guitar, backing vocals], Vince Hornsby [bass], and Morgan Rose [drums]—defy
expectations yet again on their fourteenth full-length and debut for Napalm Records, Truth Killer.
“We really cared about the process,” notes Clint. “It’s never a straight line with Sevendust. We’ve always
made left turns and dip into super heavy and very melodic sounds. We still try to do things a little
differently. I think we recreated the magic on this one, and we overcommitted to making sure every song
was great.”
In order to do so, the guys regrouped as friends first. Initially, they decamped to Lajon’s farmhouse. Over
the course of four days in 2022, they demoed out the bulk of the record, rekindling the spark that defined
their seminal output.
“We wanted to be friends again, shoot the shit, and become that garage band we were,” Clint goes on.
“It set the tone for our relationship, and the creativity opened up. We got back together and made another
fun record.”
Once again, they recorded in Florida with producer Michael “Elvis” Baskette [Alter Bridge, Mammoth,
Trivium]. This time around, they expanded the soundscape, incorporating programming by Clint and
adding cinematic heft to their signature style.
“We took our time on this record,” he goes on. “We pulled in a lot of electronic elements. In the past, I
hired outside programmers, but I did the programming myself. I tried to create a musical bed that made
it easy to sing cool vocal parts. We always set a goal to have a certain sound, and we followed through
with it. We didn’t compromise.”
As such, the album opens with perhaps the biggest departure, the slow-burning “I Might Let The Devil
Win.” Piano pierces glitchy beat-craft as Lajon’s delivery borders on magnetic and manic as he confesses,
“I want to give in, oh no, the devil won’t win.”
If Trent Reznor produced The Weeknd, it might sound something like this…
“When we agreed on the song, we realized we could do anything,” says Clint. “The vocal is really upfront
and in your face. It seems like he’s whispering the lyrics in your ear. You keep resisting temptations, but
finally you’re like, ‘It’s just who I am. I’m going to do it’.”
On the other end of the spectrum, the first single and finale “Fence” goes right for the jugular with
pummeling drums, a chugging riff, and guttural barks from Lajon. It crashes right into a hammering hook
before spiraling into an incendiary solo.
“It has the old school Sevendust vibes,” he smiles. “It was really a product of collaboration at the
farmhouse. Morgan was playing, and we all started jamming in the same room. I’m so glad we got a chance
to do a headhunter like ‘Fence’ for this album.”
The title track “Truth Killer” fuses searing orchestration with a rush of distortion and powerhouse refrain.
“Nobody wants to hear the real truth,” laments Clint. “They want things sugarcoated and watered-down,
so they can feel better. It definitely spoke to the overall tone of the subject matter.”
Then, there’s “Everything.” A jarring guitar melody underlines an affirmation on the catastrophically
catchy chorus. “You’re basically saying, ‘I’ll be anything you need me to be, and I’ll be there for you in every
way possible’,” he elaborates.
As if baptized in frustration, “Holy Water” snakes through an off-kilter bounce over incisive synths towards
a massive chant, “Someday I’ll see the light. I hope before I die.”
“None of us are perfect, so there’s no reason to judge,” Clint observes. “We’re all trying to figure it out,
but a lot of people will sling their holy water at you and act like they’re better than everyone. I have a
definite belief and relationship with God, but I’m not here to make anyone believe anything.”
“Superficial Drug” intoxicates with a sinewy bass line and head-nodding groove as one of the record’s
most melodic moments takes hold.
“Everyone needs the ‘follows’ and ‘likes’,” he continues. “The social media world is very superficial for the
most part. It’s part of the design, and I’m guilty of it too. So, the song says, ‘Go ahead and take your
superficial drug. I’m over it’. I want to be around people where there’s depth to the conversations. We
have enough friends. We would die for our fans and the Sevendust family. That’s all we need.”
In the end, Truth Killer reaffirms there’s only one Sevendust—and they’re here forever.
“As a kid who used to wait in lines to see concerts, I want to deliver the artistic quality I was looking for as
a fan,” Clint leaves off. “I want people to know we cared, took some chances, and still have the creative
spark. I want them to know we have more to say and more to prove.”

ATREYU are a band in the truest sense of the word: friends who come together to
create music for themselves, for each other, and for the thriving community that
has forged around it.
They are bonds born of time; of joy and sadness; of success and hardship. But most
importantly, they are born of an openness that allows five unique creative
personalities to unite in something far stronger and far bigger than the sum of its
talented parts. It’s what makes ATREYU – frontman Brandon Saller, guitarists Dan
Jacobs and Travis Miguel, and bassist/vocalist Porter McKnight – one of the most
respected names and potent forces in heavy music, and their live show one of the
most heralded on the touring circuit.
“We draw strength from each other and give each other the space and support to
be the best, most creative person we can be,” Dan Jacobs explains. “And together,
right now, that makes us the best band we’ve ever been.”
He’s not wrong. With a 20-year career and eight acclaimed albums in the rear-view
mirror, ATREYU in 2023 are focused only on the present and the future, and a
mission to continue shaping and defining the rock and metal scene, just as they
have always done since their emergence from Huntington Beach in Southern
California.
It’s a journey that has seen them hit stages in the furthest corners of the globe on
tour, collect multiple Gold records, amass over one billion streams and unite millions
of fans through their social channels. And they’re only just getting started.
Arriving at this point hasn’t been without growing pains expected of any decades’
long relationship. But ask the band and they will tell you that through adversity
comes strength, and that the journey has seen them arrive at a destination with
sunnier climes than they could ever have imagined.
“It has allowed us to reach a point where we finally feel like we found ourselves,” is
Jacobs’ summation. “Everything that we have put out to this point has built to this
moment. Something special is happening with ATREYU right now. We can feel the
creativity and collaboration when the five of us get in the studio. We can feel the
confidence we all give each other when we stand onstage together. And we can see
it in the audience when they’re losing their minds. They’re having as good a time as
we are ourselves.”
Where once the band were heralded as the early innovators of the nascent
metalcore scene, their place in heavy music’s diverse and boundary-breaking scene
has never felt more relevant, with inspirations of pop-punk, hardcore, thrash, ‘80s
rock and more melding into a unique and varied sound that has never felt more
relevant than in today’s increasingly genreless world.
“It feels like the world has been catching up with the diversity of influences and
sounds that we’ve been putting into ATREYU for some time now,” Saller says.
“There are no limitations, no barriers.”
To that end, new EP ‘The Hope Of A Spark’ embodies everything that ATREYU have
come to be, to mean, to represent. The first new music from the band in 2023, it
marks the beginning of the next chapter in the band’s story, and the tantalisingly
promise of what the future holds. Each of its four tracks are assorted pieces of an
expansive puzzle still taking shape, form and focus.
“These songs are the culmination of our entire artistic endeavours,” McKnight
attests. “It’s everything we’ve learned as humans, everything we’ve ingested as
musicians, and everything we’ve experienced in this lifetime. It is ATREYU
unleashed.”
Produced by long-time collaborator John Feldmann, the new release finds ATREYU
reflecting and ruminating on the pressures, pleasures and pains of modern life, each
track a snapshot of deeply personal lived and shared experiences with which
listeners the world over will identify. Individually profound, yet speaking to a wider
meaning as a collected body of work, these are universal truths which presented in
song provide catharsis and comfort to its creators.
“The overarching concept is essentially about the seasons of life,” Brandon Saller
explains. “Everyone goes through the same things, the ups and downs of life. The
emphasis really is the importance of at least respecting those, and finding the
positives and the lessons from even your lowest moments.”
In that regard, opening track “Drowning” could not be more apt. Capturing the
feeling of being, in Saller’s words, “buried by life”, the track was written as a
collective effort into which all of the band pored their own experiences – be it
familial health problems that Jacobs’ was shouldering, Saller’s first encounters with
feelings of anxiety, or McKnight’s long-running fight with depression. Stark lyrics
including “The clouds in my head always block out the sun,” conjure intimate and
varying feelings from each, and create a track that could not be more timely in its
relevance and importance, standing as emblematic of the environment fostered
both inside and around ATREYU.
“As a writer, it's therapeutic to get our feelings out; music is the best way for us to
express ourselves,” Jacobs nods. “And I think that's why it connects with people,
because they hear it and it's therapeutic to them, too.”
ATREYU fans old and new are sure to find such catharsis throughout ‘The Hope Of
A Spark’. “God/Devil” laments a loss of identity, self and faith – a desperate cry for
help from a higher power, when our greatest power is one we need to find within.
“Capital F” was inspired by Saller’s observations of the human plight he saw in his
local community; an imploration, as McKnight suggests, that “we've all forgotten
the point of this existence, which is us ourselves and our loved ones”. “Watch Me
Burn”, meanwhile, is the phoenix rising from life’s trial-by-fire – a call to arms to let
renewed hope emerge from smouldering embers and ash.
“To me it’s a song about being cleansed by fire,” explains McKnight. “Whatever it is
that’s bringing you down and holding you back, burn it down. Use it, learn from it,
move on and grow. That thing does not deserve you and you don’t deserve it.”
“It’s very relatable to all of us individually,” adds Saller, who leads the track’s
anthemic, hooky chorus with a defiant cry of ‘Even when flames grow higher / I’ll be
fighting till I’m dead.’ “But it’s also incredibly pertinent to the journey of this band.”
Where that journey leads ATREYU next is thrillingly limitless. ‘The Hope Of A Spark’,
though, is the open invitation for fans new and old to join them on the ride. And
after all, doesn’t knowing the final destination spoil the surprise?
“ATREYU is a place for everyone, us included, to be open and to be themselves,”
Porter McKnight concludes. “When you are with us, you are free. Have fun. Make
friends. Create memories.”

Fire From the Gods delivers a fierce cross between melodic and heavy music, blending influences from Hard Rock, Metal, Hardcore, and Hip Hop. Channeling personal struggle and social unrest into anthems built to move crowds and minds alike. With a reputation for high-energy live shows and a message that curs through the noise, they are ready to bring the heat! There is an instant connection forged at every live show, from headlining gigs to international festivals (Rock Am Ring, Hellfest, Graspop, Aftershock, Warped Tour, etc). The band has shared stages with some of the biggest names in rock, metal, and pop culture (Korn, Megadeth, Five Finger Death Punch, Three Days Grace, FKA Twigs, Cypress Hill, Ice Cube, Metallica and many more) while continuing to carve their own lane. 
No filters. No Gimmicks. Just fire.