The Acacia Strain

East Coast metalcore/deathcore ensemble the Acacia Strain deliver their signature blend of hardcore, noise, and death and doom metal through a bone-crushing rhythm section, apocalyptic samples, and a unique triple-guitar assault. The group broke through in 2008 when their fourth full-length effort, Continent, climbed to the summit of Billboard's U.S. Heatseekers chart. Later releases including Death Is the Only Mortal (2012), Coma Witch (2014), It Comes in Waves (2019), and Step Into the Light (2023) kept delivering neck-snapping brutality across the metal landscape.

Springfield, Massachusetts, served as the birthplace for the outfit in 2001, when guitarists Chris Daniele, Daniel Daponde, and Daniel Laskiewitz joined vocalist Vincent Bennett, bass player Karrie Whitfield, and drummer Ben Abert. Their debut, ...And Life Is Very Long, surfaced in 2002, with 3750 following on Prosthetic Records in 2004. After 3750, Abert departed and was succeeded by drummer Kevin Boutot while Daniele exited; bassist Seth Coleman came aboard after Whitfield left in 2003. The Acacia Strain resurfaced in 2006 with their third full-length album, Dead Walk, issued on Prosthetic, after which Coleman gave way to bassist Jack Strong. Continent appeared in 2008 with the lineup reduced to a foursome following Daponde's exit, whereas 2010's Wormwood wove melodic hooks into the otherwise venomous blend of breakdowns and skull-splitting howling. The live CD/DVD Most Known Unknown reached audiences the next year.

Rise Records became the band's new home in 2012, yielding Death Is the Only Mortal before the year closed. Longtime member Laskiewitz stepped away in 2013, making room for Devin Shidaker and Rich Gomez, both of whom supplied guitar on the Acacia Strain's seventh full-length album, 2014's Coma Witch. Early 2017 brought the single "Bitter Pill," the first preview of their eighth studio long-player, Gravebloom, which landed that June. Late 2019 saw the horror-themed It Comes in Waves emerge as a doomy, taut, and atmospheric seven-song set whose single-word song titles, when sequenced, spell out the sentence "Our only sin was giving them names." The following year the Acacia Strain issued a run of pummeling 7" releases (A, C, E, D, Y) that ultimately coalesced into the full-length Slow Decay, which topped multiple Billboard rock charts. Step Into the Light in 2023 found the band revisiting the metallic hardcore sound of their formative era through a collection driven by intricate guitar work and rhythmic beatdowns. Failure Will Follow, a sludge/doom metal mini-album that includes collaborations with Full of Hell's Dylan Walker, Primitive Man's Ethan McCarthy, and industrial goth rocker iRis.EXE, surfaced later the same year.