Throw The Fight

Emerging from Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2003, the post-hardcore outfit Throw the Fight has built its sound around hook-driven melodic metalcore laced with alternative rock edges. The group, featuring guitarists Ryan Baustert and Kris Weiser alongside bassist and vocalist Kade Kastelitz and drummer Alex Sullivan, first cultivated a following through relentless live shows and a series of self-released demos and EPs. A 2008 agreement with Cordless Records, the Warner Music Group-owned netlabel, led to their first full-length studio album, In Pursuit of Tomorrow.

For the follow-up, the band enlisted producer John Feldmann—known for his work with Story of the Year, the Used, and Atreyu—to shape the 2012 release What Doesn't Kill Us, which charted on Billboard and appeared via Bullet Tooth Records. The next year brought The Vault, an EP of B-sides. Subsequent efforts Transmissions in 2016 and Settle Your Sins in 2020 found Throw the Fight collaborating with producers Carson Slovak and Grant McFarland, who helped sharpen their mix of anthemic hard rock drive and punk-inflected hardcore intensity. Ahead of 2023's Strangeworld, issued on Long Branch Records, the band enlisted Josh Gilbert and Joseph McQueen—both previously associated with As I Lay Dying and Bad Wolves—to handle production duties, resulting in an album that merges visceral force with contemporary rock hooks.