The Word Alive
The Word Alive is an American metalcore band formed in Phoenix in 2008. The band was signed to Fearless Records since their formation. In 2022, they changed their label and signed to Thriller Records. The band consists of vocalist Tyler Smith, bassist Daniel Shapiro, guitarist and keyboardist Jose DelRio, guitarist Logan Abernethy, and drummer Devin Attard. Their second EP, Empire reached No. 15 on the Top Heatseekers, meeting a great amount of positive acclaim upon its release in 2009. In 2010, the group recorded their debut studio album, Deceiver and released it on August 31, 2010. It reached No. 97 on the Billboard 200 and No.15 on Independent Albums.
History
Formation (2008–2009)
The Word Alive was founded in 2008 by Craig Mabbitt with Zack Hansen and Tony Pizzuti who were former members of the bands Clouds Take Shape and Calling of Syrens. As a side project of Mabbitt during his part in Escape the Fate, the remaining required members he recruited to start The Word Alive were chosen to be Nick Urlacher, Dusty Riach and Tony Aguilera. The group recorded songs with the intention of releasing them as a self-titled EP, never being officially released but leaked to P2P networks such as Soulseek. Later on, the band forced Mabbitt to leave due to their dissatisfaction with Escape the Fate's schedules, which required Mabbitt to work as a full-time member.The day after, Mabbitt posted a blog to his fans explaining that leaving the band was not his decision and that " pretty much replaced me while I was on the road due to the fact that they wanted to tour and couldn't until I was available, I started that band with those guys and I'm very hurt at how they replaced me while I was touring...it's bullshit." On December 3, the band officially announced that Tyler Smith, who was formerly one of the vocalists for In Fear and Faith and bassist for Greeley Estates, joined The Word Alive as their new vocalist.
Feeling somewhat stagnant in their progression beforehand, the addition of Smith catapulted the band's ambitions to the forefront. With this initiation, their goals and aspirations were much more a reality, and they set to work on what would become their record label debut, Empire.
''Empire'' (2009–2010)
During March 2009, the band was taken in with a contract by a new label, later on during that month the group officially confirmed that the label they were then signed to was Fearless Records. Smith stated "We hope to just keep touring, touring, touring... we couldn't be happier or more appreciative to be on tour right now, I think despite having some of the worst luck in the early beginnings of being a touring band yet never missing a show, we always have a positive attitude and that will make us a stronger band." The band set out to create an EP to be released through the label wherein it was titled Empire and was recorded with producer Andrew Wade in Ocala, Florida. It was released on July 21, 2009, where it reached No. 15 on the Billboard Heatseeker chart.In regards to the creation of the EP, Smith stated that The Word Alive all "feed off of each other really well, we take a little bit of everything we like and put it together to try and give the listener at least something to grasp onto when they hear a song for the first time. We consider ourselves a metal band who enjoy singing a lot. As much as we love being brutal, we love being referred to as 'epic' and 'beautiful'. It works for us." After the release of their EP, the band went on multiple tours with an array of popular post-hardcore bands such as Alesana, A Skylit Drive and Silverstein. The Word Alive headlined with We Came as Romans on the "Dreams & Empires Tour" during the summer of 2009; from late July to mid-August. In October 2009, the band went on tour with Silverstein, Madina Lake and I See Stars. Shortly after that tour they played on the "You'd Be Way Cuter in a Coffin Tour" with Alesana on "The Emptiness Tour" which took place during early 2010. The Word Alive's single "Battle Royale" from Empire was hugely successful, leading the song to be featured in the popular Tap Tap series as well as it being featured as downloadable content in the Rock Band series of music games. The track is also featured on the 2010 Vans Warped Tour Compilation and later went onto being credited as the group's signature song.
During February the band reached an agreement to leave founding drummer, Tony Aguilera out of the group. Both parties shared their concerns and reasoning for the matter publicly. It was overall described that the band wanted to pursue a different percussionist of alternate talent than the founding member. Aguilera was replaced with Justin Salinas, who was previously a part of the bands Scars of Tomorrow and Catherine as well as serving as a past live drummer for MyChildren MyBride.
On March 23, 2010, a live music video for the song "The Only Rule Is That There Are No Rules" was released and includes Aguilera in its filming, making it the last release of media by the band to feature him. The video premiered on AOL's Noisecreep with a highly positive acclaim:
''Deceiver'' (2010–2011)
In April 2010, the band entered the studio in Ocala, Florida, with Andrew Wade to record their debut studio album, Deceiver. Frontman Tyler Smith noted that "We wanted to step it up in every aspect of our songs compared to Empire. When we're heavy, it's heavier. When we do things big, they are huge! When we slow it down, it's something beautiful." After the recording process of the album was finished, the band accepted to be featured as one of the many performing acts at the Bamboozle Music Festival in New Jersey on May 1, 2010, and following Bamboozle, The Word Alive participated in a headlining tour with Stray from the Path for two weeks, which was also in May.By June, Deceiver was fully mastered and engineered. On June 23, 2010, the band premiered their first single from the album, "Epiphany" as streaming media online. The following day, Fearless Records released their 2010 Summer Sampler which also featured the track "Epiphany". A week later, the album's album art and track listing was released. Guitarist Zack Hansen explained upon this premiere that "We all felt like that was going to be the best choice considering how comfortable the recording process is with Andrew. The tracking was a lot of fun and everyone had a good time. We got the opportunity to stay in a house while we recorded and surprisingly we didn't party as much as I thought we would haha." Hansen later followed along explaining that his favorite track on the record is "The Hounds of Anubis", which was written by him and Pizzuti and stated that he "wrote this song with an 'Egyptian feel' to it and I think we got our point across." Smith described that its lyrics describe the times of when The Word Alive overcame their hardships that they face with the help and support from their fans. "The Hounds of Anubis" was released as the album's second single on July 26, 2010. It premiered on the official Revolver website.
The Word Alive performed on Warped Tour 2010 along with Alesana, Artist vs. Poet, Sparks the Rescue and Motionless in White, it has also been confirmed that they will as well be participating the 2011 Warped Tour in its entirety. The band was a part of "The Anti-Hero Tour" where the group performed alongside Bleeding Through, After the Burial, Stray from the Path and Dead & Divine. The tour ran from September to October. Upon Deceivers release on August 31, it charted at No. 97 on the Billboard 200. The band is featured in the compilation album Punk Goes Pop 3, covering the Kanye West song "Heartless". The song was produced by Matt Grabe and was released on November 2, 2010. In 2011, the band also recorded a cover version of the Ozzy Osbourne song "Over the Mountain". Both the "Heartless" and "Over the Mountain" covers by the band are the last recorded songs to feature bassist and founding member, Nick Urlacher before his departure from the group on December 27, 2010. Daniel Shapiro of Sharks Never Sleep served as a touring member for The Word Alive shortly after Urlacher's leaving. The music video for their song "2012" was released on January 17, 2011, where Shapiro is featured in its recording. Months later, still searching for a bassist and before leading into the summer of 2011, it was then decided on Shapiro becoming a permanent member of the band.
Departure of Riach and Salinas, and ''Life Cycles'' (2012–2013)
By November 2011, the band made plans to return to the studio on February 7, 2012, with Joey Sturgis to begin recording their next album, with an expected recording session lasting from that time until mid-March. However, by February, the announcement of two members leaving occurred; keyboardist, Dusty Riach and drummer, Justin Salinas were simultaneously confirmed to no longer be a part of the band. Salinas stated his reason was because he grew tired of touring, although Riach's reason was preferred to be kept silent.In regards to the band's second studio album, it was reported that 17 songs were recorded in its process; 13 of which make up the album. Two of the four remaining songs that did not get included on the album, were put up as bonus tracks on Amazon & iTunes. As for the other two tracks, one of them was never completed and the other was thrown out. The name of the album is Life Cycles and was released on July 3. On March 23, the group issued a statement that 19-year-old Arizona resident Luke Holland had joined as the new drummer, however, Holland was not included for the recording sessions of Life Cycles. The drumming for the record was performed by drummer Matt Horn wherein Holland joined after these sessions were already completed. The band's performance of March 31 at Las Vegas' Extreme Thing music and sports festival was the first ever live performance with Holland.
In November 2012, they supported Parkway Drive on the "European Atlas Tour" with Emmure and Structures. Once again, They also joined Parkway Drive again in March 2013 with Veil of Maya and While She Sleeps for the "United States Atlas Tour". In May 2013, they supported Sleeping with Sirens on their UK tour along with Our Last Night. They will also appear at the Slam Dunk festival in May 2013. In the summer of 2013, they supported Killswitch Engage along with Miss May I, Darkest Hour and Affiance on the "Disarm the Descent U.S Tour".