36 Crazyfists

Formed as a metalcore outfit from Portland, Oregon, and drawing its name from a Jackie Chan film, 36 Crazyfists originally featured Brock Lindow on vocals, Steve Holt on guitar and vocals, Mick Whitney on bass, and Thomas Noonan on drums. The group first came together in Nikiski, Alaska, during December 1994, performed in the area for a time, and then moved to Portland following the passing of its initial bassist. There the quartet supported System of a Down, Primus, blink-182, and NOFX, among other acts, before Roadrunner offered a deal in 2000 once Skinlab forwarded a demo to the label. Its debut full-length, Bitterness the Star, surfaced in 2002, while the follow-up, A Snow Capped Romance—recorded with James Paul Wisner of Dashboard Confessional and As Friends Rust—appeared two years afterward. The band maintained an unbroken touring schedule behind that release, sharing stages with Killswitch Engage and Poison the Well until December, then paused for two months ahead of the next recording sessions.

In October 2005 the musicians entered the studio with Sal Villaneuva, whose prior credits included Thursday and Taking Back Sunday, and the resulting third album, Rest Inside the Flames, reached stores in 2006. The fourth effort, The Tide and Its Takers, arrived on Ferret Music in 2008 and registered on the Billboard 200; it also marked Whitney’s final appearance with the group before Brett Makowski took over on bass. The musicians kept touring in support of that record and issued the live DVD Underneath a Northern Sky in 2009. Their fifth album, Collisions and Castaways, followed in 2010, after which both Noonan and Makowski departed, with Kyle Baltus and a returning Mick Whitney stepping in. Steady road work continued until the band finally reconvened in the studio during 2014, yielding Time and Trauma for an early 2015 release on Spinefarm. Recording resumed the next year, producing the seventh album, Lanterns, in 2017.