Stand Down

Music is our life and our escape from the troubles in this world today. We deliver hard, passionate truth the best way we know how, through music. With the release of their first full length album a year behind them, STAND DOWN emerged from Ear Art Studios with the antidote for collective narcolepsy and swept through 2008 with sonic accuracy and an earnest deployment. Doubling as the album?s single and title-track, Villains Parade is a provocational, multi-layered anthem that kick-starts the album into full throttle. Following not too far behind are Suffer Kate, Convincing Me, and Born, each releasing a diverse blend of thought and depth captured in the band?s songwriting that is both compelling and convincing in delivery. The Vancouver-based band spent the last year intoxicating and immortalizing the local music scene in a sea of head-banging, sweat-dripping shows to promote the album. Opening for Default in Kelowna raised hype for the band and hurtled the boys into summer. Going on to place top 10 in Vancouver?s Seeds 2008 Competition, STAND DOWN proved to be connected by an allied field of hard-rock and metal culture. Carrying through the winter on the Xmas Slay Tour, the boys moved throughout Western Canada, venue after venue, channeling emotion, passion and politics into a progressive, blood curling audio assault of riff, rhythm and rhyme. The former four-piece unit originated from Cranbrook BC in 2003 and migrated to Vancouver soon after. They began by pushing their name and playing smaller shows then slowly built a foundation among the Vancouver scene with increasingly strong feed back from local promoters and patrons. Since the release of Villains Parade, the band has brought on yet another fresh face behind the guitar, Cody Jackson (also Cranbrook bred). Now with two guitarists dueling onstage, STAND DOWN has created a larger-than-life sound that emulates their audio aggression. With Chris Payne on the rhythm axe, laying the bottom and Sean Jmaeff?s hard-hitting drums syncopating the beats behind every potent song, STAND DOWN?S backbone is intact giving Justin Lacey and Cody Jackson free range to set the mood with deviant guitar riffs as front man and lead commander, Ken Goode, releases the perfect enigma of a somber rocker, immersing the audience in his vocal authenticity and explosive stage presence. After a long year promoting Villains Parade, STAND DOWN has recently hunkered down in the studio with producer Jay Evjen, who has produced bands such as Wide Mouth Mason, Incura, Versus the Nothing, Jenny Gault and The Turn. With a new album set to release this fall, STAND DOWN proves to be a staple in the Vancouver metal scene. Giving a paradoxal meaning to their moniker, they mean every note they play, provoking more demand from their hard-rock assembly. As a compiled unit on the forefront of a fresh page, STAND DOWN is prepared to do the work required to deliver, ultimately giving the fans a well-deserved reward for supporting one of Vancouver strongest exports.