A Skylit Drive

Originating during high school days in Lodi, California, in 2006, A Skylit Drive assembled a recognizable post-hardcore approach that fused screamo’s raw aggression with emo’s melodic leanings. The six-piece issued its first EP, She Watched the Sky, on Tragic Hero Records in 2007. Numerous personnel shifts by year’s end fueled the strained, anxiety-driven tone of the group’s debut full-length, Wires...And the Concept of Breathing, which surfaced in 2008. That record entered the Billboard Top 200 and broadened the band’s reach beyond its West Coast base.

Extensive road work followed alongside like-minded acts such as Chiodos, Greeley Estates, August Burns Red, and Sky Eats Airplane, capped by the December release of the live DVD Let Go of the Wires. Adelphia, the sophomore album and first for Fearless Records, arrived the next June; its promotion included a summer slot on the Warped Tour plus subsequent runs across the United States, the U.K., and Europe into early 2010. Recording for Identity on Fire commenced that February, yielding a 2011 release that marked the final album featuring lead guitarist Joey Wilson before his 2012 exit.

Tragic Hero Records issued the fourth studio effort, Rise, in 2013, where it reached number 41 on the Billboard Top 200. Bassist/scream vocalist Brian White and drummer Cory La Quay departed the following year. An all-acoustic rendition titled Rise: Ascension appeared in January 2015. New guitarist Michael Labelle, formerly of Ex Reverie, and drummer Brandon Richter, previously of Motionless in White, joined that March, and the next full-length, ASD, arrived later in October.