Blackout

The Blackout fuse metal, punk, and indie rock into a charged sound whose melodies only heighten its force. The six-piece from Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, features vocalists Gavin Butler and Sean Smith, guitarists James Davies and Matthew Davies, bassist Rhys Lewis, and drummer Gareth Lawrence. The group formed in 2003, issued the three-song demo EP Pull No Punches the following year, and within two years had established a strong presence on the U.K. club circuit. Fierce Panda Records, one of London’s leading independent labels, signed the band in 2006 and promptly issued the single “Hard Slammin’.” Later that year came the six-song EP The Blackout! Blackout! Blackout, which included the single “I’m a Riot? You’re a F***ing Riot.” Their debut full-length, We Are the Dynamite, arrived in fall 2007 and soon led to shared bills with Funeral for a Friend, Avenged Sevenfold, and Thrice; the band also appeared at the 2008 Give It a Name Festival in London and Sheffield alongside Paramore, 30 Seconds to Mars, and Alkaline Trio. In early summer 2009 the group delivered its first Epitaph release, The Best in Town, and spent the next two years touring it extensively, including U.S. dates with The Urgency and Silverstein plus a U.K. run supporting Paramore. Following those shows the sextet returned to the studio, though original drummer Gareth Lawrence had broken his arm just before recording began, so Kids in Glass Houses’ Phillip Jenkins and Hexes’ Tom Winch handled the drum parts on the resulting 2011 album Hope. A year afterward a countdown timer on the band’s website revealed the single and title track of the 2013 full-length Start the Party.