Tony Cummings reports on the eagerly awaited album return of RIGHTEOUS VENDETTA

Righteous Vendetta

The music of Wyoming-based band Righteous Vendetta has been described as "a muscular, tech-heavy blend of metalcore and melodic hard rock" which classifies them pretty well. The band have gigged tirelessly since their formation in 2008 and have played shows alongside such big hitters as Skillet, P.O.D. and Red. However, it's been three years since their last album so the announcement that Century Media Records will be releasing 'Cursed' on 17th March has been greeted with excitement by Righteous Vandetta's growing legion of fans. Read a band statement, "After two years of writing and recording we are beyond excited to finally release this album. For anyone that follows us, they know this has been a long process. But patience has paid off because we feel that we have crafted the best album we possibly can."

Righteous Vendetta came into being in 2008 in Cody, Wyoming and vocalist Ryan Hayes and guitarist Justin Olmstead are still pivotal members of the band, aided by bassist Riley Haynie, drummer Zack Goggins (who both joined in 2013) and guitarist Justin Smith (who joined last year). The band have recorded three EPs and three albums, 'A Complexity Of The Fallen' (EP, 2009), 'The Dawning' (2010), 'Lawless' (2011), 'Righteous Vendetta Volume 1' (EP, 2013), 'The Fire Inside' (2013) and 'Defiance' (EP, 2014).

The band's early musical direction was very much metalcore, not dissimilar to Killswitch Engage and As I Lay Dying. A major musical turnaround for the band happened in 2012 with the recording of the single "This Pain". Justin Olmstead explained in an interview with Music Junkie Press how the change came about. "We finished our 2011 release 'Lawless' and started thinking about what we were going to do next. After throwing some ideas around, we decided to try something that would really challenge our songwriting skills and push us to our creative limits. So we took the intensity and high-energy of our older metalcore sound and tried to take it in a more appealing direction. So we went to our producer Joel Wanasek and told him we wanted to give a test run at writing a hit anthem. We came in with the song and he guided us along in polishing it up and giving us some pointers for active rock writing and radio formats as it was next to foreign for us. The result was better than we could have imagined. We loved the sound, we loved writing it, we loved playing it, and it ended up spending 15 weeks on the Christian Rock Billboard charts. Needless to say, that settled it for what direction we were going to take."

Now all Righteous Vendetta's fans are waiting to hear if producer Mitchell Marlow (He Is Legend, In This Moment) has captured the magic of "This Pain" on the 'Cursed' album.