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Shinedown
Shinedown live in 2008
Background information
Origin	Jacksonville Florida, USA
Genres	Alternative metal,[1][2] hard rock,[1][3] post-grunge,[1] southern rock,[4] nu metal,[1] Alternative rock[1]
Years active	2002 (2002)–present
Labels	Atlantic (US Only) Roadrunner
Website	www.shinedown.com
Members
Brent Smith Zach Myers Eric Bass Barry Kerch
Past members
Nick Perri Jasin Todd Brad Stewart

Shinedown is an American rock band from Jacksonville Florida, formed in 2002 and founded by members Brent Smith (vocals), Brad Stewart (bass), Jasin Todd (guitar), and Barry Kerch (drums). A few line-up changes followed, and the band's current line-up consists of Smith and Kerch, the band's only two remaining original members, with guitarist Zach Myers and bassist and pianist Eric Bass. Since Shinedown's inception, they have released four albums – Leave a Whisper (2003), Us and Them (2005), The Sound of Madness (2008), and Amaryllis (2012) – and a total of 14 singles. They have sold more than 10 million albums worldwide.^[5]

History[link]

[edit] Leave a Whisper (2003–2005)

Leave a Whisper was the band's debut album, released in July 2003. It featured successful tracks such as "Fly from the Inside", "Burning Bright", the emotionally-charged "45" and the popular cover of the Lynyrd Skynyrd classic "Simple Man". The acoustic cover jolted the band to popularity, and later made a tribute to Dimebag Darrell during concert performances.

In 2004 the band released a live DVD of the album entitled Live from the Inside which also contained a documentary. The recording featured the final concert of the "Leave a Whisper" touring schedule.

[edit] Us and Them (2005–2007)

After the hugely successful Leave a Whisper and accompanying tour, the band went back into the studio in 2005 to record their second album. On October 4, 2005, the band released Us and Them, which went on to produce three singles; "Save Me", "I Dare You", and "Heroes". The lead single, "Save Me", maintained the #1 position of the Active Rock Charts for twelve weeks straight, setting a record for the band. The two other singles had similar success – "I Dare You" was notably performed on American Idol by Chris Daughtry and was the secondary theme song for the WWE flagship pay-per-view Wrestlemania 22. Us and Them was certified gold by the RIAA on November 13, 2006.^[6]

The album has three versions for release; the regular thirteen-track version, a limited edition with three bonus acoustic tracks, and a store-specific version with two bonus tracks: "Break" and "Carried Away". After the album's release the band took part in 2007's SnoCore Tour with Seether, Flyleaf, and Halestorm. After that the band joined Trapt for the Equinox Tour. The band then proceeded to play their first overseas concert at the London Astoria on June 6, 2006, supporting Alter Bridge. In the summer of 2006, the band then opened for Godsmack and Rob Zombie on their tour of North America, effectively ending their rigorous touring schedule.

On December 12, 2006, Shinedown played a concert in Knoxville, Tennessee at The Tennessee Theatre which was filmed for a DVD the band was expected to release later in 2007. However, after a show in Waukesha, Wisconsin on July 21, 2007, the band made it known that the DVD was scrapped by Atlantic Records. "We don't want to put anything out if the band is gonna be presented in the wrong way," Smith said. "I might be able to bootleg it later on ... but as of now I don't see it coming out anytime soon." In late 2007 after taking some time off, the band returned to studio to record a new album.

[edit] The Sound of Madness (2007–2010)

The band began recording their third album, The Sound of Madness, in Los Angeles on September 20, 2007. It was released on June 24, 2008. A deluxe edition was released as well including three extra tracks, digitally. Their first single, "Devour", was released on May 6, 2008, and was their second #1 on the active rock chart.

"Devour" was also the theme song for the WWE pay-per-view Night of Champions 2008, as well as part of the soundtrack to the 2009 film, The Final Destination. It can also be found on the soundtrack from Madden NFL 09. The video for the song was released on June 25, 2008. "Sound of Madness" was also used as a song for WWE Wrestlemania 25 review aired on NBC on August 30, 2009 for the Shawn Michaels/The Undertaker match.

"Second Chance", the second single off The Sound of Madness, is Shinedown's biggest hit to date, being their first top 10 song on the Billboard Hot 100. The song peaked at number 7 during its duration on the chart. "Second Chance" has since gone double platinum.^[6] Ironically for the song "that broke into everything", it was one the band hated when they first wrote it.^[7]

On April 11, 2008, lead singer Brent Smith announced that Jasin Todd was no longer a member of the band, saying "at this time, he's no longer with us in Shinedown." In the liner notes of The Sound of Madness, Smith says that he loves Todd and considers him the "brother [he] never had". Since parting ways with Shinedown, Todd has remained out of the public eye. Although rumors briefly surfaced that he had joined Soil (the band promptly denied this),^[8] he eventually became the guitarist for the rock band Fuel.

Shinedown re-released their albums, Leave a Whisper and Us and Them as deluxe editions on July 7, 2009. The albums are only available digitally. Between the two albums, the band released 25 unreleased tracks, seven of which were never heard before. The deluxe editions are scheduled for a July 7, 2009 release.

November 18, 2009 brought the release of The Sight of Madness', the band's first digital video album. The album features the band's videos and five live videos from an early 2009 performance at the Tabernacle in Atlanta, Georgia. This release is only available on iTunes. On December 18, the video for "Second Chance" ranked #7 on VH1's Top 40 Music Videos of 2009. It was helped to that ranking due to being on the countdown for 20 weeks. Other singles from the album are "If You Only Knew", and "The Crow & the Butterfly."

Shinedown was nominated for, but did not win, the "Alternative Rock" category at the American Music Awards in 2009. The nomination was due to the radio success of their hit single "Second Chance".

During shows on December 15, 2009 in Rockford, Illinois and December 18 in Biloxi, Mississippi, the band joined Papa Roach on stage to record a live version of U2's "Beautiful Day" for Papa Roach's forthcoming live album. They later headlined the "Carnival of Madness” Tour. This United States tour began July 16 and wrapped up September 3, 2010 at the Alaska State Fair.

"The Crow & the Butterfly" was released as the fifth single and began receiving airplay on April 6, 2010. Shinedown released two songs for movie soundtracks. The track "Her Name is Alice" was done for the movie Alice in Wonderland and released on the respective soundtrack named Almost Alice. Shinedown also contributed "Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom)" to the Sylvester Stallone movie The Expendables.^[9] It was released to online retailers on June 21, 2010, and as an official single December 7, 2010.^[10]

Shinedown released a deluxe CD/DVD edition of The Sound of Madness, on November 23, 2010. It featured nine bonus songs, including a version of the track "Breaking Inside" with guest vocals from Halestorm's Lzzy Hale, along all the music videos filmed for The Sound of Madness, an interview with the band, and five live clips previously available only on iTunes.

The Sound of Madness went on to spend 120 consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 chart, starting from its June 24, 2008 release and ending in late October 2010.

In 2010, the band announced an acoustic tour called "Anything and Everything". On this tour, they will take questions from the audience and take song requests.^[11] The band hand-selected Will Hoge to open for them on the tour, as the members (Zach Myers especially) have been fans of Hoge's for years. Brent Smith announced that the band is recording a live DVD of the "Anything and Everything" tour in Kansas City, Missouri, and that they will distribute it along with the Carnival of Madness DVD, another live DVD recorded in the last year.^[12]

[edit] Amaryllis (2011–present)

On February 21, 2011, via video chat on shinedown.com, the band announced the name of the new live DVD will be Somewhere in the Stratosphere.^[13] On March 8, it was announced that the album, a double CD/DVD, would be released on May 3 and include footage from the "Carnival of Madness" and "Anything and Everything" tours, as well as backstage footage, interviews, and other material.^[14] Somewhere in the Stratosphere was released on May 3, 2011.

In March 2011, guitarist Zach Myers has stated that the band was writing material for a fourth studio album. Myers stated that the band had around 14 songs written, and planned to work further on the album later in the year.^[15]

While attending the 59th annual BMI Pop Awards on May 17, Brent Smith was asked if the new album was similar to that on 2008′s platinum-certified album The Sound of Madness. Smith responded back, “Not really, because we can’t compare any of the other records to this one — just like we can’t compare the first one to the second one or the third one to the first one,” he said. “We pride ourselves on being a band that each record sounds completely different than the last. The beautiful thing is the journey and finding out where you are in your life, not only as a person, but where you are as an artist and as a musician and how far you’ve come and how far you’ve grown. So, for us, we tour a lot — our last record, we toured for almost three years — so it’s very, very crucial and very, very important for us for this fourth record [to be as strong as possible], so we take our time.” ^[16]

On August 16, 2011, it was announced that Shinedown had begun recording new material at Ocean Way Recording with producer Rob Cavallo, who had previously worked with the band on The Sound of Madness.^[17] On December 15, it was announced that Shinedown planned to release their first single of their new album, "Bully", on January 3, 2012.^[18]

On January 3, 2012, in conjunction with their new single "Bully" being released, the band announced that the new album will be entitled Amaryllis and will be released March 27, 2012, with pre-orders available on January 17.^[19] The following day, it was confirmed that the band has secured a deal with Roadrunner records to release the album in every territory besides the US where they are still signed to Atlantic. ^[20]

"Adrenaline" off their latest album was used as the theme song of the WWE Extreme Rules Pay Per View on April 29th, 2012.

Shinedown also contributed the song titled "I'm Alive" to the Avengers soundtrack which was released May 1, 2012.^[21]

Shinedown will headline the 3rd annual Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival.

Band members[link]

Current members

• Brent Smith - lead vocals (2001–present)
• Barry Kerch - drums, percussion (2001-present)
• Zach Myers - guitar, backing vocals (2005–present)
• Eric Bass - bass guitar, piano, backing vocals (2008–present)

Former members

• Jasin Todd - guitar (2001–2007)
• Nick Perri - guitar (2008)
• Brad Stewart - bass guitar (2001–2006)

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• Leave a Whisper (2003)
• Us and Them (2005)
• The Sound of Madness (2008)
• Amaryllis (2012)

Live albums

• Live from the Inside (2005)
• Somewhere in the Stratosphere (2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Shinedown

• Official website