Solace

"Shorecore" heavyweights Godspeed were pulled from their South Jersey basement in 1994 and thrust into Electric Lady Studios (built by Jimi Hendrix) to record their Atlantic Records debut, Ride. Featuring future Solace members Tommy Southard and Rob Hultz, Godspeed’s two-year major label run included an appearance on Columbia's Nativity In Black: A Tribute To Black Sabbath backing Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden); their video for "Houston Street" was featured on Beavis and Butthead and Headbanger's Ball; and they toured the U.S. and Europe with Black Sabbath, Dio, Sugartooth, and Cathedral.

Following stints as lead guitarist for Sugartooth and Slaprocket, Tommy re-ignited Godspeed in 1997 with Hultz, former Glueneck singer Jason, and Atomic Bitchwax drummer Keith Ackerman, naming the revamped outfit Solace. Kerrang! called Solace's debut album, Further, "irresistibly catchy and thoroughly terrifying" and CMJ called it "wicked and devastatingly heavy," while Metal Maniacs tagged Solace themselves "a solid, pure heavy rock band free of fashionable pretense, with an appeal to anyone who can still appreciate such a concept in today’s cluttered, sometimes confused musical climate."

Solace combine Godspeed's maniacal grind, Gluenecks's psychedelic raw power, and a ferocious drumming style into an ultra-heavy, sonic-sludge riff rock mix that anyone can groove to. Their second album, 13 (January 2003), sees the band taking their Hendrix-meets-Soundgarden brand of heaviness to a new level. The album includes ten Solace originals and two covers. Track five, "Common Cause," features doom legend Wino (The Obsessed, Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan), a longtime fan of Solace, on guest vocals and guitar. 13 also features covers of Pentagram’s "Forever My Queen" and Agnostic Front’s "With Time." The album weighs in heavy. Play it loud.