User:To Light An Abyss

To Light An Abyss (aka. TLAA) are a five man, unsigned band from Bedford, England who formed in 2009. To Light An Abyss are an Alternative Heavy Metal group whose main influences are: Trivium, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Slipknot & Bullet For My Valentine. The band consists of: Chris Williams - Lead Vocals, Luke Michaelides - Bass Guitars & Backing Vocals, Ross Davidson - Lead and Rhythm Guitars, Jamie Fleming - Lead and Rhythm Guitars, Adam Davidson - Drums.

The band started off playing a cover for a school competition, the song was The Blackout's It's High Tide Baby. Once the group realised they gelled well they set about making their own material. The band consisted, at this time, of Luke Michaelides (bass guitars & lead vocals), Ross Davidson (lead and rhythm guitars & backing vocals) and Adam Davidson (Drums), Ross and Adam are brothers with a year difference in age. By late 2009 To Light An Abyss had written one original song and covered other hits such as Iron Maiden's The Trooper, Avenged Sevenfold's Afterlife & Bullet For My Valentine's Tears Don't Fall.

After playing these songs numerous amounts of time in the practice room, To Light An Abyss realised that they needed a new guitarist. Jamie Fleming was that guitarist, When he turned up to audition for the band he played Slayer's Seasons In The Abyss and Metallica's Master Of Puppets, the band were blown away by the way Jamie made the songs seem so simple, his technique was immaculate and his presence was felt around the room. Luke, Ross and Adam, without hesitation invited him to become part of To Light An Abyss.

In the weeks to follow TLAA covered more songs including Metallica's Welcome Home (Sanitarium) AC/DC's Highway To Hell and Bullet For My Valentine's Hearts Burst Into Fire. The band's first gig was unexpected and nerve-racking (with the band having an average age of 14.5 years) at a village hall in Risely to an audience of 50 odd. To Light An Abyss were welcomed and appreciated by all. Whilst learning new covers daily, the band knew that they needed to start writing their own material if they were to get anywhere soon.

Whilst Luke Michaelides was singing the lyrics to their first original song: Genocide (Will It Ever End?) the band stopped and knew a screamer/singer was needed. Initially a friend of a friend was asked to join and he accepted, but his time in To Light An Abyss was short lived as he left a month later. Then one day, whilst at a music organisation the band came across Chris Williams who enticed them in with his screamo version of Evanescence's Bring Me To Life this left To Light An Abyss speechless as they'd never heard such power put into vocals which initially were song by a female vocalist. The band invited him over for a practice session and he fit in perfectly with the band in every way, their style, their humour and most important of all their music. Chris joined the band in April 2010 So the new To Light An Abyss consisting of Chris Williams,14 years, Luke Michaelides,15 years, Ross Davidson,16 years, Jamie Fleming,15 years and Adam Davidson,14years, wrote 8 full length songs in the space of two months and played 5 gigs in the space of a week which was a huge milestone for the band. One of these dates was at a local music festival held at Poddington where To Light An Abyss were asked to play on both days of the festival, which was held on the 10th and 11th July 2010. It was during To Light An Abyss' sound check that the sound engineer, Chris Surgeoner discovered To Light An Abyss.

A month later Chris invited the band to record all 8 of their songs with him at a local studio in Bedford. The band accepted and are now near completion of their first album, Apocalyptic Terror. In November 2010, TLAA were invited to play at Danny's Bar in Bedford, the band had a sell-out audience and we're called back two months later to play The Thursday Showcase (A series of gigs where bands would come and play a half hour set), On arrival the band were told that whoever had the largest crowd and got the best reception would go through to play The Monster Showcase on 21st April upstairs at Bedford Esquires. TLAA would relish at the chance to play upstairs and so put on the best performance they could, the band were called back for an encore on the evening it mattered and were gifted this gracious review: "To Light An Abyss was one of those bands that blew me away when I first saw them two gigs ago, - one on lev 1 the other on lev 2. They put everything in to the performance, looking the part and throwing the contemporary bands shapes and poses, looking every inch a signed up full on metal act. Good instrumentation all round and some cracking good tunes to their songs. Mostly their own songs were delivered in the same tuneful melodic way with added brutality for this tough metal unit. I kind of guessed their surprise cover might be a Lady Ga Ga song by the way their charismatic singer introduced the song as being hard to guess and hard to believe they were going to do it. I can’t help but smile because of just how good they are for their actual age (16 yrs,16 yrs, 16yrs, 15yrs & 15yrs) and the spectacle they put on for a live performance, making me think this was a much better ticket than the lev 2 gig going on at the same time. With adjustment on the amount of energy put into the vocals, compared to the energy put into getting the audience going, with a little honing in that area I think another ten percent could be added to their already 100 percent level of a band fast becoming one of my favourites"

To Light An Abyss not only progressed to The Monster Showcase but were asked to headline the event, the band were ecstatic and put on the performance of their lives by playing 6 of their 8 songs and included Rage Against The Machine's Killing In The Name Of in their set. The band were awarded a great review by the venue organiser: "To Light An Abyss continue to improve, they employ some proper metal guitar widdling and their vocalist has immense confidence. Considering its getting rather late, they hold everybody’s attention. This band rock! Firstly they encourage everybody to put an arm around someone’s shoulder and mosh. While on Veil Of Inception a circle pit is unleashed. Putting tremendous energy into their set, they are at the close drained and admit: "We are slaughtered!". With just enough fuel in the tank to tackle an encore. They deliver Unity. Taking some well-earned applause"

To Light An Abyss are currently working on new material, which is said to be of shorter length and more aggressive than previous songs, with the exception of a 10 minute instrumental.