Secret Band

During the 2010s the Sacramento post-hardcore outfit Secret Band issued two intense full-length albums and two EPs, forging a denser, more purging sound that differentiated the project from its parent ensemble Dance Gavin Dance, whose members constitute the majority of the lineup.

The group originated in 2011 as a covert side effort assembled by Dance Gavin Dance personnel Jon Mess on vocals, Will Swan on guitar, Matthew Mingus on drums, and Eric Lodge on bass; that same year Secret Band issued its debut EP under the band’s own name. Embracing a fiercer, predominantly screamed delivery that edged toward metalcore, the band delivered its first self-titled album in 2014 after enlisting Martin Bianchini as second guitarist and substituting Jordan McCoy for Lodge on bass. Those early releases appeared on Blue Swan Records, the imprint founded by Swan, until Secret Band joined Rise Records in 2019 and unveiled the follow-up LP2 that April.