Demon Hunter | METALSITES.net

Biography

Their first release, entitled simply "Demon Hunter," was released in October 2002 on Tooth and Nail Records subsidiary Solid State Records, and featured both Don and Ryan Clark on guitar and bass, Ryan as lead vocalist, and Jesse Sprinkle as drummer; it was produced by Jesse's brother Aaron Sprinkle.

At first the members of the band chose to hide their identities, creating some controversy. However, their names were later revealed when they undertook their first tour, which featured Norwegian Christian metal heavyweights Extol and death influenced metalcore youngbloods The Agony Scene, and saw the permanent adding of Jesse Sprinkle on drums, Jon Dunn on bass, and Kris McCaddon, formerly of Embodyment, on lead guitar.

After two years that saw Don's wife giving birth to a daughter and Ryan getting married, Demon Hunter returned to the studio to record their second full-length release, Summer of Darkness, with McCaddon contributing, and again with Jesse drumming. Summer of Darkness hit stores on May 4, 2004, and was a huge success, propelling Demon Hunter into the secular scene with the addition of the music video "Not Ready to Die" on MTV2's Headbanger's Ball and Fuse TV, along with single "My Heartstrings Come Undone" being placed on the Resident Evil: Apocalypse movie soundtrack. The album featured four guest vocalists, including Mike Williams of The Agony Scene on "Beheaded", Brock Lindow of 36 Crazyfists on "Beauty Through The Eyes Of A Predator", Howard Jones from Killswitch Engage on "Our Faces Fall Apart" and Trevor McNevan of Thousand Foot Krutch on "Coffin Builder".

Demon Hunter hit the road that summer, with McCaddon on lead and Dunn on bass, and with new touring drummer Tim "Yogi" Watts, as Jesse Sprinkle couldn't make the tour. This time Demon Hunter took with them rock/post-hardcore rookies Dead Poetic, along with metalcore headbangers Haste the Day. Post-hardcore band Staple (band) replaced Haste the Day towards the end of the tour.

In 2005, Demon Hunter went back to The Compound in Seattle, Washington to record their third album, entitled The Triptych. The word "triptych" centers around the concept of three, as it was the band's third album. The CD gave another bow to great bands of the past, such as Living Sacrifice, Sepultura, and Pantera. Included on the album is a cover of Prong's song "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck". This album debuted Watts as Jesse's permanent replacement on drums -- Jesse having joined Dead Poetic -- as well as the addition of Ethan Luck (The O.C. Supertones (Guitar), The Dingees (Drums) as lead guitarist, replacing Kris McCaddon. The Triptych was even bigger than Summer of Darkness, selling more than twice as many records on its first week of release than Summer of Darkness had. "Undying" was the band's first single from this album, and was also made into a video, directed by Chris Sims (As I Lay Dying, Lamb of God, Zao).

Demon Hunter's only 2006 tour took place over the summer with Zao, Becoming the Archetype, August Burns Red, and Spoken. The band shot a video for "One Thousand Apologies" after the tour was over with acclaimed director Darren Doane at the helm. The Triptych was re-released on October 31, 2006 with a DVD accompanying the album and four extra songs added to the original album.

The hard rock and heavy metal based magazine, Revolver, recently did an article on Christian music of that kind of genre. The article featured The Holy Alliance, which consists of Underoath, Demon Hunter, As I Lay Dying, and Norma Jean.

Demon Hunter recently entered the studio to record the as of yet untitled fourth full length album on June 4th.All the drum recordings have been finished. Also, the guitar and vocal recordings are near to be completed. Their new album will most likely be released by late August or early September of 2007. It is not expected to take much longer than that amount of time.