Love and Death is an American

Christian metal Christian metal, also known as white metal, Jesus metal or heavenly metal, is heavy metal music distinguished by its Christian themed song lyrics and the dedication of the band members to Christianity. Christian metal is typically performed by ...

band formed by

Korn Korn (stylized as KoЯn, or occasionally KoRn) is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, formed in 1993. The band is notable for pioneering the nu metal genre and bringing it into the mainstream. Originally formed in 1993 ...

guitarist

Brian "Head" Welch Brian Philip Welch (born June 19, 1970), also known by his stage name Head, is an American musician. He is one of the guitarists and founding member of the nu metal band Korn and his solo project Love and Death, where he also provides vocals. ...

. The group was officially announced in February 2012 as a re-branding of Welch's solo music project.

History

Formation and early years (2009–2012)

The group is effectively a re-branding of the touring group that performed under Welch's name to promote his

solo album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records coll ...

. Formed in 2009, Welch recruited musicians through open auditions via

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

, and second-round auditions, in person, at his studio in

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. The original group was a six-piece group, that featured Michael Valentine on bass, Ralph Patlan on guitar, Brian Ruedy on keyboards, Scott "SVH" Von Heldt on guitars and vocals and Dan Johnson on drums. After two years of touring, Von Heldt departed the band due to financial reasons, whereas Ruedy was let go a few months earlier and later joined

Whitesnake Whitesnake are an English hard rock band formed in London in 1978. The group was originally put together as the backing band for singer David Coverdale, who had recently left Deep Purple. Though the band quickly developed into their own entit ...

. Patlan also departed the band, but no reason was given. The search began to find a guitar player. In March 2011, two weeks before a tour, Welch discovered "the perfect fit" for his band through

Thousand Foot Krutch Thousand Foot Krutch (often abbreviated TFK) is a Canadian Christian rock band formed in Peterborough, Ontario, in 1997. The band has released eight studio albums, two live albums, and three remix albums. The band currently consists of foundin ...

's public audition videos for a new guitarist on YouTube. 15 years old at the time, J.R. Bareis was chosen by Welch to be the new guitar player and became an official permanent member of the band, as they settled on establishing themselves as a four-piece. The group released a single, "Paralyzed" in November 2011, under the Brian "Head" Welch name. In February 2012, the touring band was re-branded into the group Love and Death. Love and Death was formally announced in February 2012 through an official statement made by Welch. In the statement, Welch explained that "I have wanted to use a band name for branding my music for a few years. It has been an ongoing discussion with my management, but we were just starting to tour and I was in the middle of supporting my third book and it seemed like a bad time to switch names. Now with the new music coming out, it's time to really separate the things I do. I want the music to be about music. I will still be doing public speaking under Brian Head Welch. I am happy that all the confusion will be over". The name Love and Death was chosen because love and death are the two most significant things you can go through in life.

''Chemicals'' EP, ''Between Here & Lost'' (2012–2015)

The band's debut single, "

Chemicals A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wit ...

", was released in early April, while their debut EP of the same name released on April 24, 2012. Welch revealed that they would be releasing a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of the song " Whip It" by

Devo Devo (, originally ) is an American rock band from Akron, Ohio, formed in 1973. Their classic line-up consisted of two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs (Mark and Bob) and the Casales (Gerald and Bob), along with Alan Myers. The band had a ...

and a remix of "Paralyzed" by Har Meggido. In late September 2012, the band announced that it had signed a deal with record label

Tooth and Nail Records Tooth & Nail Records is a Christian rock record label founded by Brandon Ebel in California in November 1993. The label later moved to Seattle, Washington where it is situated today. It is home to many well-known musical acts, including Underoat ...

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

and that the group's debut album, '' Between Here & Lost'' would be released on November 20, however this was pushed back and released on January 22, 2013. On the album, Welch stated that "this record was birthed from trials, tribulations, pain, suffering, anxiety, depression, and drama. However, we came out on top and the end result is a very real, raw & honest record."

''Perfectly Preserved'' (2016–present)

On March 15, 2016 a new single titled "Lo Lamento" was released. In August 2019, it was announced that Welch was recruiting musicians such as

Jasen Rauch Jasen Ryan Rauch () (born April 24, 1981) is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. He is the current lead guitarist of the rock band Breaking Benjamin and was the former lead guitarist of the Christian rock band Red. Rauch was al ...

Lacey Sturm Lacey Nicole Sturm (née Mosley, previously Carder; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer and songwriter born in Homestead, Florida, but raised in Arlington, Texas. She is a co-founder and lead vocalist of the hard rock band Flyleaf. In ...

and

Spencer Chamberlain Spencer Chamberlain (born January 4, 1983) is an American musician, best known for being the current lead vocalist for the metalcore band Underoath. Before fronting Underoath, Chamberlain was the vocalist for the band This Runs Through in which ...

about appearing on his next work, thought to be the next Love and Death album. On October 24, 2020, it was announced that the band had signed with

extreme metal Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual tran ...

label

Earache Records Earache Records is a British independent record label, music publisher and management company founded by Digby Pearson in 1985, based in Nottingham, England, with offices in London and New York. The label helped to pioneer extreme metal by rel ...

in order to release their new album in 2021. On Friday, November 13, 2020, the band released "Down", with a new lineup of Welch, Bareis, longtime friend, producer, and

Breaking Benjamin Breaking Benjamin is an American Rock music, rock band from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, formed in 1999 by lead singer and guitarist Benjamin Burnley and drummer Jeremy Hummel. The first lineup of the band also included guitarist Aaron Fink an ...

guitarist Jasen Rauch on bass, and

Phinehas According to the Hebrew Bible, Phinehas or Phineas (; , ''Phinees'', ) was a priest during the Israelites’ Exodus journey. The grandson of Aaron and son of Eleazar, the High Priests (), he distinguished himself as a youth at Shittim with h ...

drummer Isaiah Perez on drums. On January 8, 2021, the band released "White Flag" as the second single from ''Perfectly Preserved''. It features sound similarities to both

and

. Ahead of the album's release Welch explained that the band was able to get together to create the new album, because their main musical projects were on hold due the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The album has sold 1,400 copies in its first week of release.

Band members

Current members *

(

) – lead vocals, guitar (2012–present) * JR Bareis ( Spoken) – guitar (2012–present), backing vocals (2013–present), bass (2016–2020) *

(

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

) – bass (2020–present) * Isaiah Perez (

, Righteous Vendetta) – drums (2020–present) Former members * Michael Valentine – bass (2012–2016) * Dan Johnson (

) – drums (2012–2017) Timeline

Discography

Studio albums Extended plays Singles Promotional singles Music videos

References

{{Authority control 2012 establishments in Arizona American alternative metal musical groups American Christian metal musical groups American nu metal musical groups Grammy Award winners Heavy metal musical groups from Arizona Musical groups established in 2012 Musical groups from Phoenix, Arizona Musical quartets