Disciple

Disciple, a Christian hard rock band, emerged from Knoxville, Tennessee during the mid-1990s. Their Dove Award-nominated second album, This Might Sting a Little Bit from 1999, marked their breakthrough. Throughout the next ten years, albums such as Scars Remain and Southern Hospitality helped popularize their intense alt-metal approach. Entering the 2010s, the group achieved crossover success, landing on Billboard's Hard Rock and Top 200 charts via efforts including O God Save Us All and Attack. Following several crowdfunded releases, they joined Tooth & Nail toward the decade's close, issuing Love Letter Kill Shot during 2019.

Four friends—Kevin Young, Brad Noah, Tim Barrett, and Adrian DiTommasi, the last of whom departed soon after—established the band in 1992 to combine gospel messages with the aggressive metallic sounds they favored. Their sound gradually aligned with secular alternative metal acts while they performed at churches, high schools, colleges, and comparable spaces. The self-released debut What Was I Thinking appeared in 1995, succeeded by the 1997 EP My Daddy Can Whip Your Daddy on Warner Resound. Two years later, Rugged Records put out their second full-length, This Might Sting a Little Bit, with By God following on the same imprint in 2001.

Back Again surfaced in 2003 on the band's own Slain Records imprint, the same year bassist Joey Fife joined to expand the trio into a quartet. INO Records signed them next, leading to the June 2005 self-titled LP. Late 2006 brought Scars Remain on Integrity, an album that finally secured their first Dove Award for Rock Album of the Year after multiple prior nominations.

Noah and Fife exited in 2008; bassist Israel Beachy plus guitarists Andrew Welch and Micah Sannan stepped in to fill those roles, and Southern Hospitality arrived that same year. Founding drummer Tim Barrett subsequently departed, with Trent Reiff taking his place. The eighth studio album, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades, emerged in April 2010, topping the Christian chart while reaching the Billboard Top 50. Growing visibility led to joint tours alongside leading Christian acts including Thousand Foot Krutch and Skillet.

O God Save Us All appeared in 2012 amid further personnel shifts. After four years, Welch left to join Thousand Foot Krutch; Sannan and Beachy were succeeded by Josiah Prince, formerly of Philmont, and Jason Wilkes, formerly of High Flight Society. Early 2013 saw Reiff depart in favor of Joey West, while Andrew Stanton came aboard, leaving Young as the sole remaining original member.

The updated five-piece issued the crowdfunded Attack in 2014, their strongest Billboard 200 showing at number 44 to that point. Longtime producer Travis Wyrick helmed the sessions, and the album also reached number two on both the Hard Rock and Christian charts. Wilkes departed the following year after this sole outing. The six-song Vultures EP, drawn from Attack sessions, surfaced at the close of 2015. Another EP, Live in Denmark, followed in 2016 alongside concert footage from RiverFest.

Now operating as a quartet, the band delivered another crowdfunded project, their eleventh album Long Live the Rebels, which debuted at number 125 on the Billboard 200 and marked their sixth entry there. After inking with Tooth & Nail at the end of 2018, Disciple unveiled their twelfth full-length, Love Letter Kill Shot, in September 2019. A deluxe edition containing three previously unreleased tracks arrived the next year.