Project 86

Emerging from Orange County as an intense and stylistically eclectic Christian rock/metal outfit, Project 86 crafts an alternative/post-hardcore sonic approach that echoes Tool, Korn, Helmet, and Rage Against the Machine. The group has issued a succession of commercially and critically praised recordings since surfacing in the late 1990s, among them the Billboard-charting Truthless Heroes (2002), Rival Factions (2007), and Wait for the Siren (2012). In 2024 the band delivered the concluding half of the double-LP Omni, an enveloping sci-fi/cyberpunk concept piece that merged cinematic electronics with crushing metalcore.

Vocalist Andrew Schwab established Project 86 in 1996 within Orange County, California, where its fervent and emotive fusion of hardcore punk, rap, and nu-metal drew interest from BEC Recordings, the Tooth & Nail subsidiary that signed the fledgling act in 1997. The ensemble unveiled its self-titled debut album the next year; the release moved briskly, as cuts such as “Spill Me,” “Six Sirens,” “Bleed Season,” and “When Darkness Reigns” surfaced on widely viewed MTV programs including Road Rules and The Real World. Following the 2000 sophomore set Drawing Back Lines, the band secured a contract with Atlantic Records. Produced by Garth “GGGarth” Richardson in Vancouver, that album climbed to number 37 on the Heatseekers chart and number 14 on Billboard’s Top Christian Albums tally. Matt Hyde (Slayer) was enlisted to produce the third full-length, 2002’s Truthless Heroes. Framed as a concept album whose story reflected post-9/11 American tensions and music-industry maneuvering, the record earned praise for its weighty, progressive textures and anti-establishment stance.

After departing Atlantic the subsequent year, Project 86 returned to Tooth & Nail and issued Songs to Burn Your Bridges By, signaling a reversion to the unit’s mosh-pit-oriented hardcore origins. The band reteamed with Garth Richardson for 2005’s …And the Rest Will Follow, an album that explored themes of maturity and accountability. Rival Factions, released in 2007 and incorporating brooding ’80s pop and goth textures, reached number 124 on the Billboard 200 and number five on Billboard’s Top Christian Albums chart while securing a Dove Award nomination; the Kane Mutiny EP, featuring a cover of the Sisters of Mercy’s “Lucretia My Reflection,” supported the release. The 2009 album Picket Fence Cartel struck a balance between the dark-pop leanings of its predecessor and the heavy-metal force of earlier works. Issued independently via a crowdfunding campaign that the group later repeated for 2014’s Knives to the Future, the taut and favorably received 2012 set Wait for the Siren preceded the twentieth-anniversary recording Sheep Among the Wolves, Project 86’s tenth studio album, in 2017.

In 2021 the ensemble disclosed that its forthcoming eleventh album would serve as the final release. The lead single “Metropolis” surfaced the following year, followed by “0 > 1” in January 2023. OMNI, Pt. 1, an expansive double album steeped in the dystopian sci-fi storytelling of works such as Blade Runner, 1984, and Atlas Shrugged and driven by a robust sound drawing from djent, death metal, and metalcore, appeared later that March. Project 86 completed the narrative with the 2024 release of OMNI, Pt. 2.