As Lions
London, UK
Rock
Follow the Artist
About the Artist
When As Lions came together in 2015, singer Austin Dickinson recalls, "we had a mission statement to each other and to the music. And that was to create the biggest, baddest hard rock we could, and on an almost cinematic scale." Hardly the most modest of goals, but one the London-based five-piece go a long way toward realizing on their debut EP, Aftermath. The effort's 4 dynamic tracks are a study in contrasts, mixing thick, grinding riffs and rhythms with majestically sweeping strings, stately piano tinklings and a hefty dose of atmospheric electronics, all of it shot through with Dickinson's soaring vocals and introspective lyrics. The result is music that runs a gamut of emotions, capable of sounding beautiful and hopeful one second and angry and aggressive the next. Or, as Dickinson puts it, "sonically and in terms of expression, the idea is to have these little peaks and valleys in the songs. That ambition, as far as sound and feel and emotion, is what binds the five of us together as musicians."Those five musicians—Austin Dickinson, guitarist and keyboardist Conor O'Keefe, guitarist Will Homer, bassist Stefan Whiting and drummer Dave Fee—first revealed that grand ambition in 2015, playing sold-out shows in their native England, where they garnered plenty of positive press and a growing and devoted fan base. That lead to a U.S. record deal and a trip to New Jersey to record with, Dickinson says, "an absolute hero of ours," award-winning producer David Bendeth (Of Mice & Men, Paramore, Bring Me The Horizon). From there, the band headed to Las Vegas and worked with Kane Churko (Five Finger Death Punch, Disturbed, In This Moment). "That was an amazing experience," the singer says. "Not only is Kane hyper talented, he's also a young guy—our own age. So we were all...