The Black Halos are a

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

-based punk rock band. Their music also includes some

glam rock Glam rock is a style of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and was performed by musicians who wore outrageous costumes, makeup, and hairstyles, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists drew on diver ...

History

The band was founded in 1993 by lead singer Billy Hopeless and guitarist Rich Jones, and at first, was called The Black Market Babies (not to be confused with the American band with the similar name). With the addition of Matt Camirand, Jay Millette and Rob Zgaljic, they released their first album, ''Black Halos'' in 1999. They then toured the USA, playing with

Nikki Sudden Adrian Nicholas Godfrey (19 July 195626 March 2006), known professionally as Nikki Sudden, was a prolific English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He co-founded the post-punk band Swell Maps with his brother, Epic Soundtracks, while attending So ...

, the Lazy Cowgirls, L7 and

The Hellacopters The Hellacopters are a Swedish garage rock band that was formed in 1994 by Nicke Andersson (vocals and guitar), Andreas Tyrone "Dregen" Svensson (guitar), Kenny Håkansson (bass) and Robert Eriksson (drums). Andersson (sometimes known as Nick ...

, among others. In 2001, they released the album ''The Violent Years'', on

Sub Pop Records Sub is a common abbreviation of words beginning with the prefix "sub-". Sub or SUB may also refer to Places * Juanda International Airport, Surabaya, Indonesia, IATA code SUB Computing and technology * , an HTML tag for subscript * SUB designate ...

. They toured around Canada with

The Offspring The Offspring is an American rock band from Garden Grove, California, formed in 1984. Originally formed under the name Manic Subsidal, the band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Bryan "Dexter" Holland, lead guit ...

and

Millencolin Millencolin is a Swedish punk rock band that was formed on 12 October 1992 by Nikola Šarčević, Mathias Färm, and Erik Ohlsson in Örebro, Sweden. In early 1993, drummer Fredrik Larzon joined the band. The name Millencolin is derived from ...

, and played

Edgefest Edgefest was an annual outdoor rock festival in Canada. It was founded by staff members of Toronto radio station CFNY-FM. From 1987 to 2015, the festival was held every year in the summer (except for 2007). The festival was most frequently hel ...

and the

Warped Tour The Warped Tour was a traveling rock tour that toured the United States plus three or four stops in Canada annually each summer from 1995 until 2019. It was the largest traveling music festival in the United States and the longest-running touri ...

. In 2009, the song "No Tomorrow Girls", from ''The Violent Years'', was featured in the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

-exclusive racing

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

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''. The band then had some major line-up changes, when Camirand left to join

Blood Meridian ''Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West'' is a 1985 in literature, 1985 Epic (genre), epic novel by American author Cormac McCarthy, classified under the Western (genre), Western, or sometimes the Revisionist Western, anti-Western, g ...

, and Jones left to join

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. They were replaced by guitarist Adam Becvare and bassist Denyss McKnight. In 2005, they signed with Liquor & Poker Music, released the album ''Alive Without Control'' and headed off for a 7-week, 40-show tour of Europe. In 2007, The Black Halos signed with History Music and, in 2008, released their fourth album, ''We Are Not Alone''. By this time, the band consisted of Hopeless, Zgaljic, Becvare, Johnny Stewart and Jahmeel "JR" Russell. They played

Canadian Music Week Canadian Music Week (or CMW) is an industry conference and music festival held over ten days in Toronto and Ontario, Canada. History Canadian Music Week began in 1981 and has grown to become one of Canada's largest and most influential media a ...

and went on tour with

Social Distortion Social Distortion is an American punk rock band formed in 1978 in Fullerton, California. The band currently consists of Mike Ness (lead vocals, lead guitar), Jonny Wickersham (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Brent Harding (bass, backing voca ...

. Later that year, while on tour, the band's van, gear and merchandise were stolen, and they decided to break up. The band reformed in 2016, with Hopeless, Jones and some new members, and began playing sold-out shows, including a concert at Toronto's Bovine Sex Club during

2019. Some singles followed, including 2020's "Ain’t No Good Time to Say Goodbye", which was written upon the death of Hopeless' close friend,

SNFU SNFU was a Canadian hardcore punk band formed in Edmonton in 1981, relocated to Vancouver in 1992, and disbanded in 2018. They released eight albums, two live records, and one compilation amid many lineup changes and several temporary breakups. ...

frontman and punk icon

Ken Chinn Kendall Steven Chinn (October 19, 1962 – July 16, 2020), known under the stage name Mr. Chi Pig, was a Canadian punk rock vocalist and artist born in Edmonton and long residing in Vancouver. He fronted the hardcore punk band SNFU from 1981 unt ...

(aka Mr. Chi Pig). The band is now original members Billy Hopeless, Jay Millette and Rich Jones in addition to new members Danni Action and John Kerns. In 2020, they independently released the 17-track album ''F.F.T.S. - Demos & Rarities'', a collection of demos and rare tracks going back as far as 1996. In 2021, they released the EP ''Uncommonwealth''. In November 2022, the band released their first full-length album since 2008, ''How the Darkness Doubled''.

Discography

Albums *''The Black Halos'' (1999), Die Young Stay Pretty Records *''The Violent Years'' (2001), Sub-Pop Records *''Alive Without Control'' (2005), Liquor and Poker Music, People Like You Records *''The Violent Years'' (2007, compilation), People Like You Records *''We Are Not Alone'' (2008), History Music, People Like You Records *''F.F.T.S. - Demos & Rarities'' (2020), Independent *''How the Darkness Doubled'' (2022), Stomp Records EPs *''XMas 2001 EP'' (2001, split with Bubble), Basement Boys Records *''Uncommonwealth'' (2021), Cursed Blessing Records Singles * "Retro World" / "1010" (1999), Devil Doll Records * "Jane Doe" / "Russian Roulette" (2000), Sub-Pop Records * "Sell Out Love" / "It's Over For You" (2000), Safety Pin Records * "Homeless For Christmas" / "You Better Know By Now What I Want For Christmas" (2000), Sympathy for the Record Industry * "Fossil Fuel" / "Geisterbahn II" (2016), Independent * "Geisterbahn II" / "Tandem Drown" (2019), Yeah Right! * "Ain't No Good Time To Say Goodbye" / "Rusty Rake" (2020), Yeah Right!

Members

;Current members *Billy Hopeless - vocals * Rich Jones - guitars *Jay Millette - guitar *Danni Action - Drums *John Kerns - Bass ;Former members *Adam Becvare - guitar *Johnny Stewart - guitar *Jahmeel "JR" Russell - bass *Rob Zgaljic - drums *

Denyss McKnight Denyss McKnight (born January 1982 in Vancouver, British Columbia) is a Canadian musician. Biography McKnight spent much of his early years being classically trained on piano and music theory. After relocating to the British Columbia Interior a ...

- bass *Matt Camirand - bass *C.C. Voltage - bass *Davey French - guitar *Robbie Hunter - bass *Make Up Mike aka M.U.M. - drums

References

External links

* The Black Halosat Allmusic.com
The Black Halos
on Myspace {{DEFAULTSORT:Black Halos, The Canadian punk rock groups Musical groups from Vancouver Musical groups established in 1993 Musical groups disestablished in 2008 Musical quartets 1993 establishments in British Columbia 2008 disestablishments in British Columbia Sub Pop artists Liquor and Poker Music artists