August Burns Red
is an American Christian metalcore band from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The band formed in March 2003 while some of the members were still in high school, [1] and soon began playing shows around Lancaster. The band name is derived from an incident involving their first vocalist, Jon Hershey.
"We had our name because in high school, one of our best friends, Jon Hershey, who was also our vocalist at the time. But right before he joined the band, he was dating this girl named August. And the relationship got a bit out of hand and he really wanted to end it. So he ended the relationship and instead of getting just sad about it, she got really really really angry and Jon at the time had a dog named Redd, it was an Irish setter and it had red fur and everything. So she got really mad, went up to his house, and burned his dog Redd alive, in his dog house. And the name and everything comes from, because the next day, the headlines in the newspaper in the local news was "August Burns Redd" and then we just kind of went with it. It really affected Jon, so when we were picking a band name, that was one that stuck in his head, so he decided to use it. So our name doesn't mean nothing, it just had a really weird and kind of gross meaning. " - guitarist Brent Rambler
The band is mostly known for their heavy breakdowns and odd-meter riffs. They also cite Between the Buried and Me, Misery Signals and Hopesfall as their main influences.
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AUGUST BURNS RED TICKETS
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History
In 2004,The group recorded an
EP called
Looks Fragile After All
. After about a year of playing shows and a new vocalist the band was signed to
Solid State Records in 2005 and released
Thrill Seeker
on November 8 of that year. In 2006, drummer Matt Greiner was endorsed by Truth Custom Drums.
Their second album,
Messengers
, was released on June 19, 2007. It has sold over 75,000 copies thus far,
[2] and has peaked at number 81 on the
Billboard
200.
[3]
From April to May 2008, August Burns Red toured with
As I Lay Dying and
Misery Signals.
[4]
The band toured from August 27 to October 12, 2008 with
A Skylit Drive,
Sky Eats Airplane,
Greeley Estates, and
This or the Apocalypse. August Burns Red headlined the tour.
The band also visited the UK and Europe for a month long headlining tour in November 2008 playing in Germany, Finland, Norway, Sweden, The United Kingdom, Republic Of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and France.
The band has recorded an instrumental of the classic song, "
Carol of the Bells" originally recorded for
X Christmas. This cover is featured in certain trailers for the movie
The Spirit
, which was released Christmas Day 2008.
August Burns Red recorded a cover of "
...Baby One More Time" by pop singer
Britney Spears for the
Punk Goes Pop 2
compilation album, released in March 2009.
August Burns Red released a song called "Chasing the Dragon" that was part of a new EP called
Lost Messengers: The Outtakes
. It contains B-sides, demos, and covers from the recording process of
Messengers
.
[5] The EP was released on February 24.
On March 6, 2009, the band also visited the
Middle East for the first time, playing at the
Dubai Desert Rock Festival.
The band announced on their Spring Headliner Tour with All That Remains that their latest album, called
Constellations
, will be released July 14th, 2009.
They will be headlining a tour this summer from July 10 to August 8 with
Blessthefall,
Enter Shikari,
All Shall Perish, and
Iwrestledabearonce. After this tour is completed, they will be touring Australia during August with
Architects and
Parkway Drive.
They are also billed to support
Bring Me The Horizon on their October UK tour alongside
A Day To Remember.
The band will be releasing a music video for their song
Meddler
off their album Constellations in the month of June 2009. They also released a song titled
Thirty and Seven
, on their Myspace on June 14, 2009
[6] and another one on June 21, 2009 titled
Existence
.
A third track from the upcoming album was added on June 29th, 2009 entitled "Ocean of Apathy".
On July 7, 2009, a week before its release, August Burns Red began streaming their upcoming album "Constellations" live on Myspace.
According to the Billboard sales charts "Constellations" charted at number 24 in its first week of release.
The world premiere of the brand new video titled
Meddler
was released on their MySpace page on July 28, 2009. The song is off their brand new album "Constellations" which is available in stores and online now.
Christian faith
Although August Burns Red's music is often defined as
Christian metalcore,
[7] [8] JB Brubaker mentioned in an interview with Shout!, an
online magazine, that "Christianity is a religion and not a style of music," and he would "rather just let the music speak for itself."
However, Brent Rambler commented on the fact that "It is important to us that people know that we are indeed Christians...without having us stand up there and ram it down people's throats."
[9]
Band members
;Current
- Jake Luhrs - lead vocals
- JB Brubaker - lead guitar
- Brent Rambler - rhythm guitars
- Dustin Davidson - bass, backing vocals
- Matt Greiner - drums, percussion, piano
;Former
- Jon Hershey - vocals (Looks Fragile After All
)
- Josh McManness - vocals (Thrill Seeker
)
- Jordan Tuscan - bass (Looks Fragile After All
, Thrill Seeker
)
Discography
;Studio albums
- Thrill Seeker
(2005)
- Messengers
(2007)
- Constellations
(2009)
;EPs
- Demo
(2003)
- Looks Fragile After All
(2004)
- Lost Messengers: The Outtakes
[10] (2009)
;Compilations
- This Is Solid State, Volume 6
(2007)
- X Christmas
(2008)
- Punk Goes Pop 2
(2009)
- Songs from the Penalty Box, Solid State Vol. 7
(2009)
Music Videos
- Your Little Suburbia Is In Ruins
(Thrill Seeker)
- Composure
(Messengers)
- Back Burner
(Messengers)
- Meddler
(Constellations)
References
- August Burns Red Interview
- Interview @ SHOUT! Music Webzine
- http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/retrieve_chart_history.do?model.chartFormatGroupName=Albums&model.vnu
- Misery Signals Announce Tour With As I Lay Dying
- New EP [1]
- Title Unavailable
- Take Action Tour
- Papa don't preach : August Burns Red
- August Burns Red, "Thrill Seeker" Review
- August Burns Red to Release New EP