Arcane Roots

London-based power trio Arcane Roots blended incredibly technical, progressive metal with big, bombastic pop hooks, gradually building their stock to become one of the U.K.'s favorite underground rock bands and a compelling live draw. The band formed in 2006 after guitarist/vocalist Andrew Groves and drummer Daryl Atkins met while studying music technology together at Reigate College in Surrey. Recruiting bassist Frank Tiramani, they recorded a number of home demos, leading to their self-released 2008 debut EP Brave the Sea, tracked at the same studio where <a href="spotify:artist:2qmpmvIJ66AWEdW0VOVlzS">Reuben</a> had laid down their debut. An eponymous second EP arrived the following year, and a third, Left Fire, was released in 2010, by which point Tiramani had left the band to be replaced by Adam Burton. The EPs, and the band's explosive live performances, were well-received by the press, drawing comparisons with <a href="spotify:artist:1km0R7wy712AzLkA1WjKET">Biffy Clyro</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:12Chz98pHFMPJEknJQMWvI">Muse</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:5E2rtn57BM2WPjwak4kGd5">At the Drive-In</a>, securing them a management deal. In 2012, Arcane Roots played their biggest show to date at the Greenbelt Festival. That year, they signed to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22PIAS%22">PIAS</a>, which re-released Left Fire, and put out their debut full-length album, Blood & Chemistry the following year. The album went to number seven on the U.K. rock chart; the band played the Download Festival, and toured with their heroes <a href="spotify:artist:12Chz98pHFMPJEknJQMWvI">Muse</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:1km0R7wy712AzLkA1WjKET">Biffy Clyro</a>. In 2015, Atkins left, replaced by Jack Wrench. That year the band left <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22PIAS%22">PIAS</a> and signed with Easy Life for the release of their fourth EP, Heaven & Earth. Arcane Roots spent much of 2016 holed up in the studio working on their sophomore full-length. When its first single "Curtains" emerged late that year, it revealed a new direction for the band, tempering their traditional fire with a more electronica-influenced sound redolent of <a href="spotify:artist:4Z8W4fKeB5YxbusRsdQVPb">Radiohead</a>'s Kid A period. Two further singles followed before the band's second album, Melancholia Hymns, appeared in mid-2017, also through Easy Life. ~ John D. Buchanan, Rovi