All Shall Perish

In 2002 mixing guttural death metal, NY hardcore and Swedish melodic metal was considered blasphemy. All Shall Perish was born out of a musically eclectic group of kids from the Bay Area of California, home to many revolutionary metal acts. Their sound came from the influence of bands such as Dying Fetus, At The Gates, Hatebreed, Blood has been Shed, Irate, Cannibal Corpse, Dimmu Borgir, Pantera and Metallica. Upon releasing a demo in 2002, they were signed to a small Japanese label called Amputated Vein Records and released their first album “Hate. Malice. Revenge” which was later re-released by Nuclear Blast Records in 2005. This record saw the unapologetically blasphemous intertwining of previously sacred styles and is considered to be among the very first “Death Core” records ever; it is regularly cited as an influence among the waves of bands to form in its wake.

In 2006 ASP released a genre-defining album called “The Price of Existence”, this album saw the addition of lead guitarist Chris Storey who brought a face-melting shred virtuosity to ASP’s sound. The band also welcomed the insane dynamic range of new singer Hernan Eddie Hermida, who would years later go on to front the Death Core giants Suicide Silence after the untimely death of their singer Mitch Luker. Mitch was one of ASP’s earliest fans and friends, regularly moshing to All Shall Perish at their first SoCal shows at the Showcase in Corona, California. At ASP’s first British shows in 2007 with Bleeding Through, you could catch people like Oli Sykes and the rest of Bring me the Horizon in the pit, destroying people and singing along. In 2008 the band released “Awaken The Dreamers” an album which was hailed by Kirk Hammett of Metallica in Rolling Stone magazine as one of the top 25 albums of the decade. This album saw levels of shred previously not thought possible and brought Chris Storey and All Shall Perish into a new level of confidence and power, as Eddie Hermida showcased that he was capable of every single vocal styling in the metal world. Awaken the Dreamers exploded across the metal scene and sent the band touring the globe, sharing stages with Slipknot, Journey, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Gojira and Machine Head. They became the first all-American metal band to tour Siberia and trekked across all of Europe, Australia, Canada and the UK.

2009 saw the unceremonious departure of guitarist Chris Storey and drummer Matthew Kuykendall and a brief stint by a young unknown guitarist called Jason Richardson, who would later go on to become one of the top guitar players of the modern era. In 2011 All Shall Perish released “This is Where it Ends” and toured Japan, South East Asia and the rest of the world over, even being hand picked by Metallica to play their Orion Fest and were introduced by the god Kirk himself. As a strange and ironic twist of fate, “This is Where it Ends” was the band’s last record; or so was thought for many years. In 2024 the band announced a reunion of the Price/Awaken era line up including Eddie Hermida, Chris Storey, Ben Orum and Matthew Kuykendall. They began playing headlining shows across the US to a both new and old blood thirsty fan-base in a surprisingly thriving scene which was once shunned and ridiculed. In the 12 year absence of All Shall Perish, the once anathema term and genre known as Death Core had transformed from blasphemy to orthodoxy in the metal world and legions of bands now wore the moniker with pride. The ever evolving landscape of what “Metal” is had once again transformed, thanks in part to another Bay Area Metal band, Oakland’s All Shall Perish.