Fit For A King

Fit for a King emerged from Tyler, Texas, as a Christian metalcore outfit whose sound fused melodic hooks with punishing breakdowns and lyrics that probed the shadows of human existence for glimmers of hope. Echoing the approach of post-hardcore standard-bearers As I Lay Dying and Underoath, the group coalesced in the late 2000s before achieving widespread traction during the following decade through three consecutive Solid State Records releases—Slave to Nothing in 2014, Deathgrip in 2016, and Dark Skies in 2018—that each reached the summit of the relevant charts. Their 2020 album The Path repeated that dual dominance, again claiming the top spots on both the Rock Albums and Christian Albums tallies.

The band took shape in 2007 with vocalist Ryan Kirby, guitarists Justin Hamra and Bobby Lynge, bassist Aaron Kadura, and drummer Jared Easterling. After years of nonstop touring they issued their debut Descendants independently in 2011, only to be signed by Solid State, which re-released the record in 2013. With label support they entered the studio alongside producer Andreas Magnusson to craft Creation/Destruction, their first Solid State offering, which surfaced later that year and appealed equally to secular and faith-based listeners. The Will Putney-helmed Slave to Nothing followed in 2014, landing inside the Top Ten on both the Billboard Christian Albums and Top Hard Rock Albums charts. Deathgrip arrived in 2016, opened by the incendiary single “Pissed Off”—penned in response to the Bataclan attacks during the 2015 Paris tragedy—and included guest appearances from August Burns Red’s Jake Luhrs and Miss May I’s Levi Benton. In June 2018 the group previewed four aggressive tracks ahead of Dark Skies, released that September. Lynge exited prior to the arrival of The Path in 2020, the first album to feature his replacement, Daniel Gailey; the record peaked at number six on Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart and number one on the Christian Albums chart.