From its humble beginnings amid the industrial sprawl of Birmingham in the late ‘60s through to its digital age renaissance, British heavy metal has always thrived on regular doses of fresh blood and youthful rejuvenation. Each year new acts emerge screaming to be heard but now, spawned by the ever-vibrant London music scene, Rise To Remain have raised their voices to the sky and have become the latest and arguably greatest young metal band of recent times.
Brought together by a mutual desire to create exciting, state-of-the-art heavy music worthy of their passion, these fiery-eyed contenders have outgrown their humble origins as bright-eyed teenagers with dreams of fame and fortune and evolved into one of the most formidable new bands to explode out of the UK in many years.
“For me, the moment when I decided that I wanted to do it was when I walked out of an exam, my last A-level,” laughs frontman Austin Dickinson. “I walked out halfway through and went and did a show that night. It’s become clear over the last few months that we can take this band to the next level, so it was obviously the right decision.”
A year has passed since Rise To Remain unleashed their first significant release, the ‘Bridges Will Burn EP’, which was initially given away free with hallowed UK metal magazine Metal Hammer. That welcome exposure, combined with a rigorous gig schedule, enabled the quintet to gain momentum and add substantially to their rapidly-expanding following. The support of the fans led to Rise To Remain waltzing off with both Metal Hammer’s Best New Band award at the mag’s annual Golden Gods ceremony and the Best British Newcomer award at rock bible Kerrang!’s high profile awards bash.
With expectations high and their reputation soaring, the rest of 2010 passed by in a whirlwind of live performances and feverish songwriting behind the scenes as plans for a full debut album began to fall into place. Sharing stages with everyone from fellow Brit metal crews Bring Me The Horizon and Bullet For My Valentine through to the legendary Iron Maiden, the band have dedicated themselves to paying their dues, learning their trade and grabbing every opportunity with both hands.
The end result of all their hard work and devotion to the cause is that Rise To Remain have now produced a debut album that brims with confidence and intensity, and which deserves to propel the band into the upper echelons of the UK metal scene and beyond. Created with renowned metal producer Colin Richardson manning the controls, ‘City Of Vultures’ is an explosive, assured and extraordinarily diverse first offering that marks Dickinson and his band mates out as extremely talented standard bearers for a new generation of metal bands.
“Colin’s a guy that has helped to define modern metal and he’s worked with a bunch of bands that are incredibly important to metal in general,” states guitarist Ben Tovey.” He really listened to our songs and our playing and dedicated a lot of time to getting the right sounds, and we all stepped up too. It’s been an amazing experience for all of us.”
“Listening back to it now, it does sound immense!” beams bassist Joe Copcutt. “I just hope people devote as much time to listening to it as we did to making it. We’re incredibly proud of this record.”
Veering stridently from the brutal riffs and soaring hooks of opening track ‘The Serpent’, newly-minted live favourite ‘This Day Is Mine’ and first single ‘Nothing Left’ through to the subtly progressive structures and wild dynamics of ‘Power Through Fear’, ‘Roads’ and a newly-revitalised ‘Bridges Will Burn’, ‘City Of Vultures’ provides a potent showcase for the sheer breadth of vision and strength of focus that Rise To Remain are swiftly making their trademarks.
The collision between Dickinson’s impassioned, versatile vocals, the dizzying technicality and intelligence of Ben Tovey’s leads, Will Homer’s urgent, precise riffing and the thunderous throb ‘n’ thud of Joe Copcutt’s bass and Pat Lundy’s drums, produces showers of mesmerising sonic sparks that shine a blazing spotlight on smartly-crafted songs of preternatural maturity and verve.
Meanwhile, Colin Richardson’s pristine, bombastic production job ensures that every last riff, solo, melody and scream erupt from the speakers with maximum energy and clarity. This is state-of-the-art British metal and it’s simply electrifying.
“I hope a lot of people will respect this record, especially coming from a really young band, because there’s a lot that’s outside the usual metalcore cliché thinking box,” Dickinson avows. “At the same time, I think that our fans will just love it for being a great album. It’s energetic, it’s got a lot of melody and a lot of brutal parts and all the things that tick their boxes, as well as plenty for the older generation too! Ha ha!”
“I can’t stand listening to an album when every song sounds the same,” adds Copcutt. “We wanted every song to have its own feel, just to make the listener go through a journey rather than saying ‘If you’ve heard one song, you’ve heard them all!’ We want people to hear what we can do…and we want them to want to hear more!”
Now signed to globally-renowned record company EMI, Rise To Remain look certain to become one of the hottest and most in-demand young rock bands on the planet. ‘City Of Vultures’ exhibits a confidence and cleverness that will stand the band in good stead as they embark on a gruelling touring schedule with the principal purpose of winning over as many fans of life-affirming heavy music as possible. With the talent, the charisma and the drive to take on all-comers and emerge victorious, Rise To Remain are heading onwards and upwards. The world is theirs for the taking.
“It’s definitely a really ambitious project for all of us now,” concludes Dickinson. “This is our job now. It’s our primary focus and it’s our career. When I was young, I found it hard to even consider the fact that I might be able to make music for a living. But I wouldn’t hesitate to tell you that I’ve always wanted to headline at Wembley Stadium! This is where it all begins…”
This biography was provided by the artist or their representative.
