Being as an Ocean:
Emotional Hardcore For Those Who Want To Feel. San Diego, CA.
A melodic hardcore outfit from Alpine, California, Being as an Ocean combine drifting atmospheres with aggressive outbursts. After emerging in 2011, the band flirted with mainstream success in 2014 with the release of their Billboard-charting sophomore effort, How We Both Wondrously Perish. They continued to refine their visceral post-rock and emotional hardcore sound on subsequent releases, including 2015's Being as an Ocean, 2017's Waiting for Morning to Come, and 2019's Proxy: An A.N.I.M.O. Story. Following a expanded reissue of their 2012 debut, Dear G-D, they delivered their sixth full-length, 2024's Death Can Wait.
Members of Being As An Ocean include, or have included, Tyler Ross, Joel Quartuccio, Michael McGough, and Connor Denis.
Vanna:
Taking influence from bands like , , and , Boston metalcore outfit Vanna were barely together a year before signing with in fall 2005. Comprising Joe Bragel (vocals), Nick Lambert (guitar/vocals), Evan Pharmakis (guitar/vocals), Brandon Davis (drums), and Shawn Marquis (bass), their music often alternated between melodic singing and visceral growling. The band parted ways with Bragel for personal reasons in February 2006, and a new vocalist, Chris Preece, eventually replaced him. Vanna's debut EP, The Search Party Never Came, appeared in June 2006. Vanna spent the summer touring nationwide, including various dates with labelmates , before retiring to a Seattle studio with producer Matt Bayles (, ) that fall. The resulting full-length, Curses, surfaced in April 2007 and was supported with spring shows alongside . The group's sophomore outing, A New Hope, also on , arrived in 2009, followed in 2011 by And They Came Baring Bones and The Few and the Far Between, both of which were issued via Sacramento-based . The Will Putney-produced Void, the band's fifth long-player, was released in 2014 through . An EP of covers called ALT dropped in 2015, followed by a new studio album, All Hell, in 2016. ~ Corey Apar, Rovi
lowheaven:
Formed in the spring of 2020, beneath the dark clouds of the COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders, lowheaven’s sound oscillates somewhere between post-hardcore, screamo, blackened noise, and metal. Vocalist and guitarist Dan Thomson, formerly of Canadian post-hardcore band Sparrows, explains candidly, “We’re not a happy listen, lowheaven is something that has got a lot of weight.” Their debut album, Ritual Decay, explores the reality of complete social isolation and the acceptance of what it means to lose faith in life and yourself.