Biography
Birmingham, Alabama outfit Erra, often singled out as the driving force behind today’s progressive metalcore wave, merge the brute force of extreme metal with melodic exploration and meticulously timed rhythmic breaks. The technical metalcore unit, which surfaced at the start of the 2010s, reached a broader audience with its 2013 sophomore album Augment, a set that led the Billboard Heatseekers chart. Parallel success arrived via Drift in 2016 and Neon in 2018, while the group delivered its sixth full-length, Cure, in 2024.
Citing Misery Signals, As I Lay Dying, Born of Osiris, and Saosin as touchstones, Erra began in 2009 when guitarist and clean vocalist Jesse Cash joined forces with scream vocalist Garrison Lee. Seeking to push their ideas ahead, Cash and Lee enlisted friends Adam Hicks on bass and Alex Ballew on drums. The lineup locked into place once guitarist Alan Rigdon was found through MySpace, and the band adopted the name Erra, a term for chaos drawn from Akkadian mythology. In 2010 they issued the self-released EP Andromeda, whose favorable notices and fan enthusiasm prompted a deal with Tragic Hero Records.
Their first full-length, Impulse, surfaced in 2011; heavy touring alongside the release lifted their standing in the independent metal community and earned support slots with August Burns Red, Born of Osiris, and Tesseract. Bassist Adam Hicks stepped away in 2012 to concentrate on academics, yet remained long enough to finish Augment, which arrived in fall 2013 as the band’s first chart entry. Sean Price assumed bass duties that same year and later shared guitar responsibilities with Jesse Cash after Alan Rigdon exited in 2014. Garrison Lee also departed in 2014; Ian Eubanks handled screams through 2015 before J.T. Cavey took over in 2016.
The transitional Moments of Clarity EP appeared in 2014, and the Sumerian-issued third album Drift followed in early 2016. It opened at Number One on the U.S. Heatseekers chart, a peak repeated by the widely praised Neon in 2018. Conor Hesse had settled in on bass by that point. After leaving Sumerian in 2020, Erra signed with Australian label UNFD, which put out their fifth, self-titled LP the next year. Sean Price’s exit in 2022 brought Clint Tustin aboard for sessions leading to Cure, released in April 2024. The band marked the occasion with an April-to-June tour featuring Make Them Suffer, Void of Vision, and Novelists. Away from Erra dates, Jesse Cash records and performs as Ghost Atlas.
Citing Misery Signals, As I Lay Dying, Born of Osiris, and Saosin as touchstones, Erra began in 2009 when guitarist and clean vocalist Jesse Cash joined forces with scream vocalist Garrison Lee. Seeking to push their ideas ahead, Cash and Lee enlisted friends Adam Hicks on bass and Alex Ballew on drums. The lineup locked into place once guitarist Alan Rigdon was found through MySpace, and the band adopted the name Erra, a term for chaos drawn from Akkadian mythology. In 2010 they issued the self-released EP Andromeda, whose favorable notices and fan enthusiasm prompted a deal with Tragic Hero Records.
Their first full-length, Impulse, surfaced in 2011; heavy touring alongside the release lifted their standing in the independent metal community and earned support slots with August Burns Red, Born of Osiris, and Tesseract. Bassist Adam Hicks stepped away in 2012 to concentrate on academics, yet remained long enough to finish Augment, which arrived in fall 2013 as the band’s first chart entry. Sean Price assumed bass duties that same year and later shared guitar responsibilities with Jesse Cash after Alan Rigdon exited in 2014. Garrison Lee also departed in 2014; Ian Eubanks handled screams through 2015 before J.T. Cavey took over in 2016.
The transitional Moments of Clarity EP appeared in 2014, and the Sumerian-issued third album Drift followed in early 2016. It opened at Number One on the U.S. Heatseekers chart, a peak repeated by the widely praised Neon in 2018. Conor Hesse had settled in on bass by that point. After leaving Sumerian in 2020, Erra signed with Australian label UNFD, which put out their fifth, self-titled LP the next year. Sean Price’s exit in 2022 brought Clint Tustin aboard for sessions leading to Cure, released in April 2024. The band marked the occasion with an April-to-June tour featuring Make Them Suffer, Void of Vision, and Novelists. Away from Erra dates, Jesse Cash records and performs as Ghost Atlas.
Albums
Singles
