Decyfer Down
| Decyfer Down | |
|---|---|
 Decyfer Down performing in Jacksonville, Florida on March 29, 2011. | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Morehead City, North Carolina, United States |
| Genres | Christian rock, hard rock,[1] post-grunge, alternative metal |
| Years active | 1999–present |
| Labels |
Fair Trade Services INO Records Columbia Records Fuel Music |
| Website |
www |
| Members |
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| Past members |
|
Decyfer Down is a Christian rock band formed in 1999 and based in Morehead City, North Carolina. Until 2002 – the year that Christopher Clonts joined the band – they went by the moniker Allysonhymn (pronounced All-eyes-on-Him). Following Clonts' arrival they switched to the current name, Decyfer Down. Decyfer Down is well known in the Christian music, but the band is also known for their mainstream success having toured with bands like Puddle of Mudd, Breaking Benjamin.
Biography
Decyfer Down was originally formed in 1999 as Allysonhymn by guitarist Brandon Mills and drummer Josh Oliver. Formerly an acoustic outfit, the group eventually switched to a more rock-oriented sound. Josh Oliver's brother, Caleb Oliver, joined the band later that year as their bass player and lead vocalist. In 2002 guitarist Christopher Clonts joined, cementing their sound. Clonts met Caleb, Brandon and Josh at Morehead City, after graduating from high school, and later on, joined Allysonhymn.[2] The band changed their name to Decyfer shortly afterwards. The band was first signed by SRE Recordings. In an interview, Brandon Mills claimed that "marketing-wise, it was a little challenging to have bands named Decyfer and Disciple on the same label". Hence, they changed their name to Decyfer Down.[3]
A record deal with INO Records led to the band's debut album, End of Grey, which was released on June 2006. The album had five singles "Fight Like This", "Break Free", "Burn Back the Sun," "No Longer" and "Life Again" all of which reached No. 1 on the Christian rock charts. The album peaked at No. 43 on the Billboard Top Christian Albums.[4] "Fight Like This" was featured in UFC promo which aired on September 7, 2007 for twelve hours on the front page of YouTube. After that, they toured with artists such as Puddle of Mudd, Breaking Benjamin, Crossfade and Adema. The band has shared the stage with acts such as Pillar, Thousand Foot Krutch, Day of Fire, The Showdown, Skillet, Disciple, Hawk Nelson, and many more.[5] In 2008, Caleb, appeared with Skillet on their "Comatose Comes Alive" tour and played the Bass for them.
On July 7, 2008 Decyfer Down's released the lead single off their upcoming album; "Crash" to radio. "Crash" went on to peak at the No. 1 spot on the Christian Rock charts and No. 20 on the ChristianRock.net end of year charts.[6] The song was also used to promote the Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy match at WrestleMania XXV. In support of their upcoming album the band released a 3 song EP to iTunes on September 30. The EP contained "Crash" as well as two other new songs entitled "Best I Can" and "Now I'm Alive". Some claim that Decyfer Down had already started selling signed, physical copies of the entire Crash album (containing all songs except "Desperate" and "Moving On") before its release, during their live shows, which means that Caleb Oliver had finished recording his Vocals on all songs of the Crash album and those were sold as pre-ordered copies. However, no legitimate proof exists on the internet, and Decyfer Down hasn't said anything about it.
In September 2008, the band announced that Caleb Oliver had left the band. TJ Harris formerly of Fighting Instinct joined a few weeks later. On February 3, the second single "Fading" was released. Fading peaked at No. 1 on the Christian Rock Charts, making it their second No. 1 single from their new album and sixth consecutive No. 1 single. It is their first official public studio recording TJ Harris. On February 17, the band released an updated EP with TJ's vocals, containing the songs "Crash", "Fading", and "Moving On".
On May 5, 2009 Decyfer Down's second studio album, "Crash" was released. It debuted at No. 66 on the Billboard 200 in its first week, selling nearly 9,000 copies, and stayed for three weeks, dropping to No. 128 and then to No. 181 before falling off the chart.[7] Drummer Josh Oliver stated in an interview in July that the record had sold upwards of 30,000 copies in three months. On December 3, 2009 it was announced that Crash had been nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock or Rap Gospel album of the year, which they did not win, but being nominated was a huge success for the band.[8]
In March 2010, the band announced that they had begun writing for a third album. In November 2010, the band posted a short video of them in the studio, working on writing new songs for their upcoming album, with the help of Gavin Brown.[9] On August 27, 2013, the band released their third album called Scarecrow.
On October 27, 2014, the band released a compilation of their songs in an anthology, called "Anthology", which was released under the label of Fair Trade Services. This compilation consisted of songs from their previous albums. There were no new songs on this record.[10]
On May 12, 2015, original member and drummer Josh Oliver announced that he would be stepping down from the band.[11]
On September 26, 2015, Decyfer Down announced an upcoming EP consisting of six songs which would be their first independent EP.[12] They started a campaign on IndieGogo to get some support via Crowd Funding.[13] On October 23, 2015, Decyfer Down announced that they have added 4 bonus tracks to the project, and converted the EP to an album, consisting of ten songs.[14] The estimated release date of this album is in February, 2016. On November 14, 2015, Decyfer Down revealed the name of their new album to be "The Other Side of Darkness".
On November 27, 2015, they released a single from the album, called "Nothing More", which went on to peak the Christian Rock charts. They also released acoustic EPs and an acoustic version of their song "Anchor Me" exclusively to people who contributed to their campaign.
On February 18, 2016, Decyfer Down announced the release date of their new album, The Other Side of Darkness, to be released on April 1, 2016.[15]
Discography
Studio Albums
| Year | Album | Label | Chart peaks[16] | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US Rock | US Hard Rock | US Christian | |||
| 2006 | End of Grey | SRE Recordings/INO Records, Columbia Records | — | — | — | 43 |
| 2009 | Crash | INO Records, Columbia Records | 66 | 21 | 9 | 3 |
| 2013 | Scarecrow | Fair Trade Services | — | — | 15 | 14 |
| 2016 | The Other Side of Darkness | Independent/Fuel Music | — | 40 | 15 | 9 |
| "—" denotes a release that did not chart. | ||||||
EPs
| Year | Album | Label | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Decyfer | Independent | Released when the group was named Decyfer.[17] |
| 2008 | Crash Digital - EP | INO Records | Contained three songs with Caleb Oliver's vocals.[18] |
| 2009 | Crash - EP | INO Records | An updated EP with TJ Harris's vocals.[19] |
Compilations
| Year | Album | Label | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | ConGRADulations! Class of 2006 | interlinc | I'll Breathe For You |
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christian Rock | Christian CHR | |||
| 2006 | Fight Like This | 1 | — | End of Grey |
| Burn Back the Sun | 1 | — | ||
| 2007 | No Longer | 1 | — | |
| Life Again | 1 | — | ||
| 2008 | Crash | 1 | — | Crash |
| 2009 | Fading | 1 | 15 | |
| Desperate | 1 | — | ||
| Best I Can | 16 | 24 | ||
| 2010 | Moving On | — | — | |
| Ride with Me | 3 | — | ||
| 2013 | Fight to Win | — | — | Scarecrow |
| So In Love | — | — | ||
| Westboro | — | — | ||
| Memory | — | — | ||
| 2015 | Nothing More | 8 | — | The Other Side of Darkness |
Members
Current Members
- TJ Harris - Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Acoustic Guitars, Piano (2008 – present); Bass Guitar (2008 − 2009); Backing Vocals [Only In Studio Recording Sessions]
- Christopher Clonts - Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Backing Vocals (2002 – 2015);(studio 2015 - present)
- Brandon Mills - Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Backing Vocals (1999 – present); Synth [Only In Studio Recording Sessions]
- Benjamin Millhouse - Drums, Percussion (2015 – present)
- Chris Furr - Bass Guitar (2013 – present)
Former Members
- Caleb Oliver - Lead Vocals, Bass Guitar (1999 – 2008); Backing Vocals [Only In Studio Recording Sessions]
- Josh Oliver - Drums, Percussion (1999 – 2015)
Touring Members
- Kevin Young(Disciple) - Bass Guitar (Comatose 2009)
- Joey West(Disciple) - Drums (Reload and Rock 2014)
- Andrew Welch(TFK) - Rhythm Guitar (Comatose 2009)
- Joe Pangallo(Day of Fire) - Rhythm Guitar (Days of the Reckoning 2006)
- Glenn Hartzog - Bass Guitar (Multiple Tours; before Chris Furr joined)
Timeline
References
- ↑ Decyfer Down at AllMusic
- ↑ "Chris Clonts | CAMP ELECTRIC". www.campelectric.com. Retrieved 2016-03-25.
- ↑ "blastzone Online". blastzone Online. Retrieved 2016-03-25.
- ↑
- ↑ "Official Dates: Skillet’s Awake & Alive Tour 2009". StereoTruth.net. 2009-07-28. Retrieved 2011-09-26.
- ↑ "Top 100 of songs 2008". Christianrock.net. Retrieved 2011-08-07.
- ↑ http://www.billboard.com/artist/decyfer-down/740588Drummer
- ↑ "Decyfer Down gets Grammy nomination | HM". Hmmagazine.com. 2010-01-31. Retrieved 2011-08-07.
- ↑ DecyferDownOfficial (2010-11-22), Decyfer Down - Writing with Gavin, retrieved 2016-04-11
- ↑ "Anthology by Decyfer Down on iTunes". iTunes. Retrieved 2016-04-03.
- ↑ "Josh Oliver - Hey friends, I wanted to formally announce... | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2016-02-27. line feed character in
|title=at position 28 (help) - ↑ "Decyfer Down Announces new EP".
- ↑ "Decyfer Down launches a fundraiser on IndieGogo".
- ↑ "Decyfer Down Announces Full Length Album".
- ↑ "Decyfer Down Releases 'The Other Side of Darkness' April 1". www.newreleasetoday.com. Retrieved 2016-02-21.
- ↑ http://www.billboard.com/artist/300654/decyfer+down/chart
- ↑ http://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/artists/DecyferDown.asp
- ↑ Crash (Decyfer Down album)
- ↑ Crash (Decyfer Down album)
External links
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