The Famine was an American

death metal Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...

band formed in

Arlington, Texas Arlington is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Tarrant County. It forms part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and is a principal city of the metropolis and region. ...

in 2007. They were signed to

Solid State Records Solid State Records is a Christian metalcore record label, an imprint of Tooth & Nail Records. Unlike Tooth & Nail, Solid State signs hardcore punk and heavy metal bands. Like Tooth & Nail, Solid State is primarily a Christian label. However, ...

History

Formation and three-song EP

The band initially formed with three of the original members of

Embodyment Embodyment was a Christian rock band from Arlington, Texas. The group formed in 1992 and were first known by the name Supplication where they originally played death metal, later turning to deathcore with the release of their debut album ''Embr ...

in former lead vocalist

Kris McCaddon Kris McCaddon was the second guitarist for the metalcore band, Society's Finest and lead guitarist for Demon Hunter. He was also the vocalist for the bands Embodyment and The Famine. History McCaddon's career started in 1994 when he joined th ...

, drummer Mark Garza and guitarist Andrew Godwin. While McCaddon previously played guitar in

Demon Hunter Demon Hunter is an American Christian metal band from Seattle, Washington, started in 2000 by brothers Don Clark and Ryan Clark. Although the brothers created the band together, only Ryan remains, since Don left the band to take care of his ...

he, along with Nick Nowell, also played guitar in

Society's Finest Society's Finest is a metalcore band from Dallas, Texas. Their first full-length album, '' The Journey...So Far'', was released on Solid State Records in May 2000. Due to member changes and personal matters the band took a break from touring a ...

. During the fall of 2006 the band recorded 3 songs that would later become a self-released EP.

''The Raven and the Reaping''

The Famine's first album '' The Raven and the Reaping'' was recorded in November and December 2006 with Andreas Magnusson ( The Black Dahlia Murder,

The Agony Scene The Agony Scene is an American heavy metal band from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Formed in 2000, the group currently consists of lead guitarist Chris Emmons, vocalist Mike Williams, and rhythm guitarist Brian Hodges. The band has released four albums, o ...

) and released in May 2008. The Famine performed on the ''Stronger Than Hell'' tour with

and

Living Sacrifice Living Sacrifice is an American Christian metal band formed in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1989. The band has released eight studio albums, out of which the first three were recorded under R.E.X. Records with their original vocalist Darren Johnso ...

in the summer of 2008. They toured with Rose Funeral and The World We Knew during October 2008 and with The Devil Wears Prada,

Saosin Saosin is an American rock band formed in Orange County, California in 2003 by Beau Burchell, Justin Shekoski, Zach Kennedy, and Anthony Green. The band released their first EP, ''Translating the Name'', in 2003. That year, vocalist Anthony Gre ...

, and

Underoath Underoath (stylized as Underøath or UnderOath) is an American rock band from Tampa, Florida. It was founded by lead vocalist Dallas Taylor and guitarist Luke Morton on November 30, 1997, in Ocala, Florida; subsequently, its additional member ...

in November 2008. During this time they were also picked up for management by Anthony "Yogi" Allgood of Outerloop management ( Emery, Darkest Hour) based out of the Washington, DC area. The Famine's video for the song "Consume, Devour, Repeat" premiered virally on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

's Headbangers Blog on Thursday, November 6 and was subsequently televised on

MTV2 MTV2 (formerly M2) is an American pay television Cable television, channel owned by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. The channel launched initially as an all-music video service, once the original MTV had started to sh ...

Headbangers Ball ''Headbangers Ball'' is a music television program that consisted of heavy metal music videos airing on MTV and its global affiliates. The show began on MTV on April 18, 1987, playing heavy metal music videos from both well-known and more obs ...

on Saturday, November 8.

''The Architects of Guilt'' and departure of Kris McCaddon

The band announced the departure of vocalist Kris McCaddon via MySpace on January 9, 2010. Bassist Nick Nowell took over vocals, and bass duties were quickly filled by new addition Jon Richardson as announced on the 15th. The band's studio burned down in February 2010. It contained all of their equipment and tracking for their new album. Only one song from these sessions, "We Are The Wolves", made it on to the new album. Solid State rented out a house for The Famine to record in. The band stated that if the label had not done this it would have taken a much longer time for the album to be recorded. "The Architects of Guilt" was released February 15, 2011, through Solid State Records. A video for the song "Ad Mortem" was released soon after the album was released.

Disbanding

On April 12, 2011, Nick Nowell announced via a Facebook post that The Famine had disbanded. The announcement read as follows: Before disbanding, The Famine recorded a cover of

Pantera Pantera () is an American heavy metal music, heavy metal band from Arlington, Texas formed in 1981, and currently comprised of vocalist Phil Anselmo, bassist Rex Brown, and touring musicians Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante. The group's best-kn ...

's "Domination" off of the album, ''

Cowboys from Hell ''Cowboys from Hell'' is the fifth studio album by American heavy metal band Pantera, released on July 24, 1990 by Atco Records. It marked the band's major label debut and their first collaboration with producer Terry Date. This was also the al ...

'', without Godwin, with Tooley taking over. The Famine performed their last concert on August 12, 2011, at Tomcats West in Fort Worth, Texas. Andrew Godwin, Nick Nowell, and Jon Richardson were the only active members from "The Architects of Guilt" performing at the show. Touring Guitarist Jon Tooley, which they had made a member and fill-in drummer Brad Fincher (

Devourment Devourment is an American death metal band from Dallas, Texas. Formed in 1995, the band has split up and reformed three times leaving Brad Fincher as the only original member. The current lineup is Ruben Rosas, Chris Andrews, Dave Spencer and B ...

) were also there to perform the show.

Christianity

Despite being on the predominantly Christian Solid State label, as well as sharing members with the openly Christian band

, The Famine expressed much reluctance to be associated with the Christian market throughout their tenure. In 2008, McCaddon told Indie Vision Music, when asked about the relation of the band's faith to their music, "You can call us whatever you want. We are a metal band and wouldn't label ourselves anything but and honestly don't care what people label us. Our faith isn't forced into our music, nor is it an obligation. It is embedded in the fabric and is who we are." In his review of ''

The Architects of Guilt ''The Architects of Guilt'' is the second full-length album by the death metal band The Famine released the February 15, 2011 via Solid State Records. It is the follow-up to their debut '' The Raven and the Reaping'' (2008). Development Early ...

'', Scott Alisoglu of

Blabbermouth.net Blabbermouth.net is a website dedicated to heavy metal and hard rock news, as well as album and music DVD reviews. Blabbermouth.net was founded and is run by Borivoj Krgin. The first version of the website was launched in March 2001; in October ...

directly identified the band as "

laying Laying is the act of making equipment level. It usually involves moving equipment in small motions so that spirit levels are centralised in all planes. Movement is usually done by small worm gears or other fine setting devices for accurate sma ...

Christian death metal" on the album, and made several further references to the band's faith throughout the review. Nowell took issue with this in a March 2011 note on the band's official

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

page, in which he stated that "The Famine is not, and has never been a Christian band. Furthermore, I am an

Atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

...The Famine isn't a religious institution, in theory or in practice. We are a death metal band, plain and simple." Despite this, as of May 2012, Alisoglu has yet to recant the categorization. The Christian music site Jesus Freak Hideout reviewed both of the band's albums, though staff member Michael Weaver noted that ''The Architects of Guilt'' had not been released to the Christian market, and that the site was covering it because "they are a Solid State band that expresses their faith in their music."

Members

Final lineup *Brad Fincher – drums (2011) (

) *Andrew Godwin – guitar (2006–2011) (

, Chase Pagan,

Pyrithion Timothy Peter Lambesis (born November 21, 1980) is an American musician and producer, best known as the founding member and lead vocalist of American metalcore band As I Lay Dying. He also had a solo/side thrash metal project in tribute to ac ...

, Hope Deferred) *Nick Nowell – bass (2008–2010), lead vocals (2010–2011) (

, The Monarch, Thorn vs. Side, Sunrise Cemetery) *Jonny "Christmas" Richardson – bass (2010–2011) (Saboteur, The Monarch) *Jon Tooley – touring guitar (2010–2011) (Bear Witness
1733
Hope Deferred) Former members *

– lead vocals (2006–2010) (

) *Mark Garza – drums (2006–2011) (

, Lhoist, formerly of

Bleeding Through Bleeding Through is an American metalcore band from Orange County, California, formed in 1999. In 2004, ''Revolver'' magazine hailed Bleeding Through as one of eight bands ushering in the "Future of Metal" cover story, and '' Spin'' called Ble ...

, Constant Seas) Timeline

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20 PlotArea = left:90 bottom:90 top:0 right:10 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Period = from:01/01/2006 till:08/12/2011 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Colors = id:Vocals value:red legend:Lead_vocals id:LGuitar value:green legend:Lead_guitar id:RGuitar value:brightgreen legend:Rhythm_guitar id:Bass value:blue legend:Bass id:Drums value:orange legend:Drums id:album value:black legend:Album id:ep value:gray(0.55) legend:EP id:Bars value:gray(0.95) Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom BackgroundColors=Bars:Bars ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:2006 ScaleMajor = increment:1 start:2006 LineData = layer:back at:01/01/2007 color:ep at:05/27/2008 color:album at:02/15/2011 color:album BarData = bar:KM text:"Kris McCaddon" bar:AG text:"Andrew Godwin" bar:JT text:"Jon Tooley" bar:NN text:"Nick Nowell" bar:JR text:"Jonny Richardson" bar:MG text:"Mark Garza" bar:BF text:"Brad Fincher" PlotData= width:11 bar:AG from:01/01/2006 till:end color:LGuitar bar:AG from:01/01/2006 till:01/01/2008 color:RGuitar width:7 bar:AG from:01/01/2006 till:01/01/2008 color:Bass width:3 bar:AG from:01/01/2008 till:01/01/2010 color:RGuitar width:3 bar:NN from:01/01/2008 till:01/01/2010 color:Bass bar:NN from:01/01/2010 till:end color:Vocals bar:JR from:01/01/2010 till:end color:Bass bar:KM from:01/01/2006 till:01/01/2010 color:Vocals bar:MG from:01/01/2006 till:04/13/2011 color:Drums bar:BF from:04/13/2011 till:end color:Drums bar:JT from:01/01/2010 till:end color:RGuitar

Discography

*''The Famine'' (Independent, 2007) *'' The Raven and the Reaping'' ( Solid State, 2008) *''

'' ( Solid State, 2011)

Videos

*"Consume, Devour, Repeat" – 2008 *"Ad Mortem" – 2011 *"Domination" (

cover) – 2011

References

External links

Myspace

Purevolume

Solid State Records
*

All Music AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Famine Solid State Records artists Musical groups established in 2007 Musical groups disestablished in 2011