A Band Called Pain (abbreviated ABCP) are an American heavy metal band from

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. The band was formed by cousins Allen Richardson (also known as Allen Anthony formerly of the

Roc-A-Fella Records Roc-A-Fella Records was an American hip hop record label and music management company founded by record executives and entrepreneurs Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, Damon "Dame" Dash, and Kareem "Biggs" Burke in 1994. History 1994–2000: Formation ...

R&B group Christion) and Shaun Bivens who both hail from the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. The band's debut studio album ''Broken Dreams'' was released in 2006, and was dubbed one of the ten best (#6)

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

albums of the year by '' Zero Magazine''. The first single from the album is the song "The Pieces". The song has a music video as well. The band's song "Holy" appeared on the ''

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'' soundtrack. A Band Called Pain is also notable for being a rare heavy metal band consisting of four

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

members. Guitarist Bivens alluded to this saying: The band is also the only heavy metal act released on the

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

, alternative hip hop label,

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. ABCP has performed at the South By Southwest festival in Austin,

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. In October 2008, Tony Providence left the band and was replaced by Akili Peyton the following year. Sometime after 2010, the band decided to take a hiatus to focus on other musical projects. In January 2019, A Band Called Pain announced a one-off reunion show at The Uptown Nightclub in Oakland, California with the original line up on March 30, 2019. On January 10, 2021, guitarist Shaun Bivens announced on Facebook that A Band Called Pain is recording their first EP, titled "56 Down", since the release of "Beautiful Gun" back in 2010. On March 26, "56 Down" was released to the public. It is currently unknown if this will be a full return of the band.

Members

lineup

*Allen Richardson —

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

(2001–2010, 2019, 2021–present) *Shaun Bivens —

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

s (2001–2010, 2019, 2021–present) *Bryan Dean (aka Dark Kent) — bass (2001–2010, 2019, 2021–present) *Tony Providence — drums (2001–2008, 2019, 2021–present)

Former members

*Akili Peyton (aka Killz Atwillz) — drums (2009–2010)

Discography

*''Broken Dreams'' (2005) *''Beautiful Gun'' (2010) *''56 Down - EP'' (2021)

References

External links

A Band Called Pain -- Official WebsiteA Band Called Pain's MySpace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Band Called Pain, A Heavy metal musical groups from California Musical groups established in 2001 Musical groups disestablished in 2010 Musical groups reestablished in 2021 African-American heavy metal musical groups Musical groups from Oakland, California Musical quartets from California