For the young ‘uns that don’t remember, Blood Has Been Shed is the way killer turn-of-the-century metalcore band that Howard Jones and Justin Foley were in before they signed Killswitch Enage. It’s true! I swear it! These dudes were really real people even before KsE ever came along.

Blood Has Been Shed are also a band that a lot of people — like me! — have been waiting for a reunion from since, like, forever. Or at least 2009, when BHBS guitarist Corey Unger said that “I have been working on the new album,” which led many of us to believe that he was probably, y’know, working on a new album.

So naturally, when Vince and I interviewed KsE bassist Mike D’Antonio  Mr. Jones later that same year, we asked the vocalist about it. I’ve re-printed this quote about a bajillion times now, but it’s never not-relevant to the discussion of a possible BHBS reunion, so here it is again:

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What the fuck? Look at this press release Axl just forwarded to me:

“It was in 1983 when Howard Jones first burst upon the contemporary music scene and brought his very English song-writing and pioneering synthesizers to an unsuspecting world. His first two albums Human’s Lib and Dream Into Action were massive worldwide hits.

“Human’s Lib reached #1 in 1984 in the UK and featured the hits ‘New Song,’ and ‘What Is Love?’  In 1985 Howard released his follow up: Dream Into Action, which quickly became a Top Ten Platinum album here in the US and featured the massive hits: ‘Things Can Only Get Better,’ ‘Life In One Day,’ ‘No One Is To Blame,’ and ‘Like To Get To Know You Well.’

“Now for the first time ever, Jones will perform these first two classic albums in their entirety in the US this fall. A true icon of the 80’s and godfather of modern electronic dance music, Jones will be giving the fans what they’ve longed for.”

Okay, so first of all, I did NOT know that Howard Jones was English. I always thought that dude was from Massachusetts!

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Back in 2008, legendary metalcore pioneers Overcast — who went on to be in a couple ofsmaller bands you may have heard of, like Shadows Fall and Killswitch Engage — got back together to re-record some old tunes for a collection called Reborn to Kill Again. When that album was released, I interviewed vocalist Brian Fair (also of the aforementioned Shadows Fall), and I asked him if Overcast might ever write some new music together. His answer?

“We’ve actually talked about it because Pete [Cortese, guitarist] and Mike [D'Antonio, bassist] definitely have ideas for songs. We just have to make sure that they’re Overcast songs, you know? And not just a Pete song. Like I said, it has to be tuned to E and there has to be a mosh part that goes nowhere and there has to be random time changes for no reason. All those things have to be there in order to make it an Overcast song. We’re definitely not opposed to [writing and recording new material]. It may or may not happen, it depends on if the songs are quality.”

Well, I guess somewhere along the way these dudes either decided that these songs are not “Overcast songs,” or otherwise decided that it just wasn’t Overcast without guitarist Scott McCooe and drummer Jay Fitzgerald, or, uh, something else — because the band’s three most famous alumni (In case you’re dumb: D’Antonio went on to join KsE, Cortese went on to join Seemless) are now reuniting to form a new band called Death Ray Vision.

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A screencap of the hard drive on which Unearth are tracking their new album. These are all working titles, natch.

Since Unearth split with drummer Derek Kerswill back in October, fans have been wondering who the metalcore pioneers would find to fill his spot. And while a full-time replacement has yet to be decided, the band has announced that Killswitch Engage (and maybe still Blood Has Been Shed?) skinsman Justin Foley (no, not the Justin Foley that sometimes graces this site with his presence) will play all the drums on their album. The band explains in a statement:

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We’ve all been there. Tensions are high in some packed, sweaty venue, sparked by feverish excitement and the potential for violence. These people paid good money to enjoy some type of cathartic release. The frontman for whatever hard-nu-death-crab-metal-core outfit is brazen and demanding. Can you believe this shit? You PAID to be entertained, and this guy is telling YOU what to do! The speech goes something like this: “I want everybody in this room moving! Front to back, side to side, NO ONE STANDS STILL! When this part kicks in, I want total [Insert destructive word here like "chaos," "mayhem," or "bedlam" if you're witty]. If the person next to you isn’t moving, MAKE THEM MOVE!” Than, if the action is not adequate, this screamer/pep rally organizer calls YOU some variation of “pussy” or “faggot” or really anything to make you feel like a soft, womanly bitch of a man in order to get in that pit and kick another grown man in the face, all in the spirit of making this band look like they are awesome. But then something happens, as if the air is sucked out of the room at the moment of impact – when those glorious staccato chugs kick in, the crowd is almost always powerless to its charms regardless of the obvious lack of substance. Like junk food and reality TV, we have a love affair with breakdowns.

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When we interviewed Howard Jones about the new Killswitch Engage album earlier this year, we couldn’t help but ask about the rumored new offering from Blood Has Been Shed, too. Here’s what Howard told us:

There was some news a little while ago that there might be another Blood Has Been Shed album.  Are you involved in that still in any capacity?

Howard Jones:    Well… yeah [laughs].

They made it sound like you might not be coming back…

HJ:   We’re just trying to figure out what exactly it is that we’re going to do.  Blood Has Been Shed is just one of those things where none of us do it full time, barely part time.  We’ll get something out.

Of course, for any BHBS fan, this was fantastic news. A new album was really in the works! Howard was still on-board! What could possibly go wrong?

Well, for starters, it could turn out that Howard isn’t really involved.

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When Axl posted our Blood Has Been Shed exclusive news bit yesterday, he hinted at a full interview with Killswitch Engage’s Howard Jones and Mike D’Antonio; and here she is. Chatting with Howard and Mike was more like shooting the shit with some old friends than it was a formal interview, even though we’d never met the dudes before. Howard and Mike told as all about the new album, working with producer Brendan O’Brien, the decision to self-title the new record, their work in Blood Has Been Shed and Overcast respectively, the band’s writing process, what it’s like to play arenas, and more.

Howard was sporting a sick beard so naturally we had to comment on it, and that’s where things started:
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A few weeks back Vince and I got to interview Howard Jones and Mike D’Antonio about the new Killswitch Engage album. We’ll be running that interview soon enough, but for now there’s some news we just have to share.

You may recall that, back in January, BHBS guitarist Corey Unger confirmed that he was, at long last, writing a new album, but hinted that Jones and drummer Justin Foley (who is – duh – also in KsE now) might be involved in only limited capacity, if at all. Unger stated that “There is a vast mix of people who will be involved in this project including the original members. The line-up of musicians is very artistically driven based on the album’s style.”

Well, I wasn’t gonna get in a room with Howard Jones and not ask him about his involvement (or lack thereof) in a new BHBS record. Here’s what Jones had to say:

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As many of you have already noticed, The Gauntlet is now reporting that Killswitch Engage have been added to the main stage of this summer’s Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival, which is good news for metal fans but bad news for the organizers of Ozzfest.

Just as importantly, though, Lambgoat has revealed that Blood Has Been Shed – a.k.a. the band Howard Jones and Justin Foley were in prior to joining KsE – are on the verge of making their (hopefully) glorious comeback.

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Metal Blade has signed infamous Massholes, Overcast. Overcast are of some interest because their singer, Brian Fair, went on to front a little band you may have heard of called Shadows Fall, while their bassist, Mike D’Antonio, eventually joined some group called Killswitch Engage (the band’s other members, presumably, went on to get day jobs). That makes Overcast one of those bands that is kind of a retroactive supergroup, like the line-up of Megadeth that had Kerry King for all of ten seconds, or one of those glam bands like London or Hollywood Rose, whose various members went on to form Motley Crue, GN’R, and L.A. Guns.

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