As Cities Burn

As Cities Burn
Background information
Origin	Mandeville, Louisiana, US
Genres	Christian rock,[1][2] post-hardcore, indie rock (later)
Years active	2002–2009, 2011–2016
Labels	Tooth & Nail, Solid State
Associated acts	Hawkboy
Past members	Pascal Barone Bryan Dixon TJ Bonnette Colin Kimble Cody Bonnette Chris Lott Aaron Lunsford Stephen Keech

As Cities Burn was an American Christian post-hardcore band from Mandeville, Louisiana that formed in 2002 and broke up in 2009. The band has since been "resurrected", according to their Facebook fan page. On August 16, 2016, drummer Aaron Lunsford announced on Twitter that the group disbanded.^[3]

History

Early beginnings and Son, I Loved You at Your Darkest (2002–2006)

As an unsigned act, the group drew the attention of Solid State Records, an imprint of Tooth & Nail Records, which signed them in 2004.

They released their first full-length album, Son, I Loved You at Your Darkest on June 21, 2005, and was featured in Solid State's Young Bloods Tour with The Chariot, Showbread, and He Is Legend. In 2006 they toured with The Bled, Protest The Hero and Sincebyman. They held two CD release shows for this album: June 21 at Covington in Louisiana, LA and June 22 at Vinos in Little Rock, AR.

Son, I Loved You at Your Darkest had mostly a post-hardcore sound. The album contained heavy screaming by front man TJ Bonnette, with back-up vocals from his younger brother Cody Bonnette. A dark, dramatic, and emotional sound was consistent throughout the record. "The Widow" (clean vocals by Cody) was a hint of what As Cities Burn would later sound like without the screaming of TJ.

Hiatus and Come Now Sleep (2006–2008)

On June 10, 2006, the band announced the end of As Cities Burn, but in early July — after an outpouring of support from fans — decided to remain together.^[4] The band's final concert was to be on August 19, 2006 at the House of Blues in New Orleans, LA. However, soon afterwards the band decided they would remain together and record a new album.

In summer 2006, on what was to be their last tour, they parted ways with bassist Pascal Barone, shortly after their announcement that they were staying together. For the remainder of the tour they performed with Robert Chisolm, singer of the band Jonezetta. After the tour they returned home to record a new album, with current guitarist Colin Kimble playing bass.

On December 17 (midnight of December 16), the band released a demo on MySpace and PureVolume of a new track from their upcoming album, which they recorded in early 2007. It surprised fans due to its complete lack of screaming, which had been the dominant vocal style on their previous releases. The change of vocal styling was a result of TJ Bonnette, As Cities Burn's original vocalist with a screaming style, leaving the band in pursuit of building his relationship with his wife, who lived three hours away.^[4] Guitarist Cody, who had sung the clean vocals previously, took over vocals entirely. TJ played one final show with As Cities Burn at the end of January in 2007 at the Highground venue in Metarie.

As Cities Burn spent February and March 2007 recording their newest album. On April 12, 2007, As Cities Burn released the title of their second album, Come Now Sleep. The album was released August 14, 2007. On June 8 at 12:00 AM, the song "This Is It, This Is It" was posted on their MySpace and PureVolume profile. On July 2, a second song, "Empire", was added onto their PureVolume page. From August 7 to 9, the album was made available for streaming on the band's MySpace account. On August 14, 2007, Come Now Sleep hit the shelves.

Hell or High Water and Breakup (2008–2009)

In spring of 2008, As Cities Burn posted in a bulletin on MySpace that they would be at home writing the new album. They recorded the album in summer of 2008. On September 7, 2008, they posted another bulletin that they were "about three weeks" from completing the new record. It was also said to "expect more of the direction (they) began heading in with Come Now Sleep," and that Cody, and their friend Tyler Orr were recording the record almost entirely by themselves. On January 2, 2009, the band posted a new recording entitled "Gates" on their MySpace page, which was a song the band had played numerous times at the end of live sets. On January 10, at their Texas show, they debuted "'84 Sheepdog". On March 30, "'84 Sheepdog" was posted on their MySpace page. Starting April 2, a new track was posted every Monday up to the release of the album.^[5] The songs posted were "Into the Sea", "Pirate Blues", and "Errand Rum". The Hell or High Water album was released on April 21.

In an interview in HM Magazine, Cody Bonnette stated, "The dream is to never break up, eventually start to suck more and more, and fade away." However, on July 15, 2009, As Cities Burn announced on their MySpace page that they had broken up.^[6] They released the following statement:

New projects (2008–2011)

Chris Lott went on to play guitar for Twin Killers.^[7] Cody Bonnette and Aaron Lunsford have started a new band called Hawkboy, and toured with Emery in the We Do What We Want Tour. Their sets involve covering As Cities Burn's music, as well a few new originals. Hawkboy has recorded a free EP that can be downloaded on iTunes, or accessed through their Facebook page.

Reunion and break-up (2011–2016)

On August 30, 2011, As Cities Burn updated their Facebook status saying "Stay tuned for news regarding As Cities Burn". The band made a Twitter account shortly thereafter, through which they tweeted "Reunion show" followed by the hashtag #silyayd, which is an abbreviation for their album Son, I Loved You at Your Darkest. They announced that they would be playing the album in its entirety with TJ at Unsilent Night, a festival in Dallas, TX. Barone was not present on stage in Dallas, but instead Kimble remained on bass while Lott took Kimble's place on rhythm guitar. On February 6, 2012, the band announced via their Facebook page that they would also be playing the full album in Nashville and Baton Rouge in April.

In July 2012, they played a short tour with UK band The Elijah, including The Sugarmill, Stoke and Summerjam/Deadbolt Clubnight @ Zoo, Manchester.

According to the band's Facebook page, the band is "resurrected".^[8]

On October 9, 2012, it was announced that As Cities Burn would be playing all dates of Underoath's Farewell Tour with MewithoutYou and Letlive in early 2013. It was also announced that Stephen Keech, former vocalist of well-known Christian metalcore group Haste the Day will be playing bass on the tour.^[9][10]

On June 1, 2015, the band released the music video for a new song, "Prince of Planet Earth", on YouTube.^[11]

On July 1, 2015, the band added another new song to YouTube, "Goldmine".

On August 3, 2016, the band added longtime touring member and Haste the Day vocalist, Stephen Keech to the lineup on bass and vocals.^[12] The band issued a statement on August 17, 2016 stating the band had ended, "this time for good", and cancelled remaining performances, with apologies to ticket-holders.^[13]

Members

• Cody Bonnette – clean vocals, (2002–2007), lead vocals (2007–2009, 2011–2016) guitar, keyboards, programming (2007–2009, 2011–2016)
• TJ Bonnette – screamed vocals, programming, piano (2002–2007, 2011-2016)
• Aaron Lunsford – drums, percussion (2003–2009, 2011–2016)
• Stephen Keech – bass, backing vocals (live 2012–2013, 2015–2016; 2016)
• Colin Kimble – bass, (2006–2009, 2011–2014) guitar, (2002–2006, 2014–2016) backing vocals (2002–2009, 2011–2016)
• Chris Lott – guitar, backing vocals (2006–2009, 2011–2016)

Former

• Bryan Dixon – drums (2002–2003)
• Pascal Barone – bass (2002–2006)

Discography

Studio albums

EPs

• 2002: As Cities Burn EP (2002)
• 2003: As Cities Burn EP (2003)
• 2007: The EP

Videography

• "Bloodsucker Pt. II"
• "Empire"
• "The Widow" (live)
• "Prince of Planet Earth" (Official Lyric Video)
• "Goldmine"

References

External links

• As Cities Burn on Myspace