Solitary

It’s more than twenty five years now since Solitary planted their standard and pledged their allegiance to the thrash metal cause. Over the decades their commitment has been unflinching, their integrity unquestionable and with 2008s Requiem album they delivered an album to challenge the genre’s best. Requiem received great reviews from the major metal press, like Kerrang and Rock Sound and tracks were featured on the cover mount CDs of Legacy, Zero Tolerance and Terrorizer.

The next few years were spent playing live at every opportunity, alongside the likes of Lawnmower Deth and Xentrix – taking the thrash to the masses. Solitary also took part in the Headbangers Balls tour, raising money for the Teenage Cancer Trust. Having played so many great shows the band decided to celebrate their twentieth anniversary, in 2014, with the release of a live album. The album was called I Promise To Thrash Forever, once more confirming Solitary’s total dedication to pure thrash metal. The album was mastered by Darkane vocalist Lawrence Mackrory and its raw assault was the perfect way to close the first chapter of the Solitary story.

2017 proved to be one of the most exciting years to date for Solitary – kicking off with the release of a brand new album, The Diseased Heart Of Society. With the help of world renowned producer Simon Efemey, Solitary had created the heaviest and most intense album of their career. Praise poured in from the world’s metal press and prestigious shows followed, with the band appearing at Hammerfest/HRH United with Hammerfall, Destruction and many more. They also played at Thrashersaurus, with Onslaught, supported Acid Reign in London and played their own headline shows across the UK and in the Netherlands. Ever present band front man, Rich Sherrington, also put pen to paper and wrote the band’s biography, I Promise To Thrash Forever: The Solitary Story, praised by Zero Tolerance Magazine for its “sheer bloody honesty”.

Heading into 2018 there was no let up for Solitary. The band signed with Dutch label Doc Records, with the first fruits of this new arrangement being the release of a special 20th Anniversary edition of Solitary’s debut album, Nothing Changes. Remastered and with some bonus demo tracks Nothing Changes saw Solitary back in the press spotlight again, with the influential Metal Forces branding the album a ‘cult classic’. 2018 also saw Solitary snapped up by the FAT Angel booking agency which meant another busy year on the road, in the UK and mainland Europe, including a headline slot in Scotland at the Hordes Of Belial festival. The final days of 2018 saw Solitary return to London, where they joined old friends Lawnmower Deth and Xentrix for a thrashing Xmas classic of a show, ending the year on a real high.

2019 marked 25 years of die hard metal for Solitary, a quarter of a century of staying true to the principles they hold dear and the music they love. Such a milestone could not be allowed to slip by unnoticed and in the summer the band headed out to Europe once again, to perform at the Aggressive Music Fest, alongside the legendary Root. Following that they returned to the UK for a triumphant performance at the UK’s premiere all metal festival – Bloodstock Open Air. Solitary lined up alongside metal gods the Scorpions and thrash heroes Metal Church, Death Angel and Anthrax, giving one of the fiercest displays of relentless metal of their entire careers. To coincide with their Bloodstock appearance Solitary also released a limited edition, celebratory EP. XXV featured three re-recorded classics from the band’s back catalogue and two live tracks captured at a London show with Darkane. With artwork from legendary artist Koot (Girlschool, Saxon, The Almighty etc) XXV proved that Solitary’s star is continuing to rise, selling faster than any other release in their history. The rest of 2019 saw Solitary focused on writing for the follow up full length album to The Diseased Heart Of Society. In January 2020 they returned to Foel Studios, with Simon Efemey once more at the helm. When they emerged, after a grueling work schedule, they had something quite stunning on their hands; an album to eclipse everything in the Solitary back catalogue. German label Metalville, home to rock legends like Lee Aaron, Ugly Kid Joe and Foghat saw the huge potential in the new Solitary album and were quick to sign the band up.

October 2020 saw Metalville Records release "The Truth Behind The Lies" in the midst of global pandemic Solitary managed eclipse the sales of the previous releases and batter there way into the top ten of the Amazon Thrash Metal Charts. The album received critical acclaim from major publications such as Metal Hammer, Aardshok, Rock Hard, Zero Tolerance, Powerplay and many more. They hit the road post lockdown for a series of dates with Acid Reign ending 2021 with the release of their fifth promo video from the album.

In late April 2022 Metalville released XXV Live at Bloodstock a CD/DVD package which contained the whole Bloodstock show plus interviews along with all of Solitary's promo videos, The CD also had remixed versions of the XXV Studio tracks . Solitay embarked on a UK in June to support the release of both The Truth Behind the Lies and XXV Live at Bloodstock upon their return they have commenced re production with Simon Efemey for album number five, with a view to a release to co inside with a European and UK tour in 2023.