Million Dead

Emerging from the same mid-noughties post-hardcore scene as <a href="spotify:artist:4AbDWrmJPSOeIbT2Ou60ik">Funeral for a Friend</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:1vrwXqSGdLsWtvIev4H0WH">Hell Is for Heroes</a>, Million Dead were an Anglo-Australian quartet influenced by the avant-garde punk rock of <a href="spotify:artist:5E2rtn57BM2WPjwak4kGd5">At the Drive-In</a>. Named after a lyric in Swedish metal band <a href="spotify:artist:5sdxGvwxI1TkTA6Pu2jnTb">Refused</a>'s track "The Apollo Programme Was a Hoax," the band formed in 2000 when guitarist Cameron Dean and bassist Julia Ruzicka, two Australians who had relocated to London, teamed up with vocalist <a href="spotify:artist:27M9shmwhIjRo7WntpT9Rp">Frank Turner</a> and drummer Ben Dawson. After support slots on U.K. tours of <a href="spotify:artist:70KN42fQ5j40SUVlDQiCrH">the Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:7hNNgYjg90PZpfzgQE5bgn">the Icarus Line</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:3YGigudQiWDb5NdJOC5StS">Alec Empire</a>, they released their debut EP, Smiling at Strangers on Trains, through <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Integrity+Records%22">Integrity Records</a> in 2002, and followed it up a year later with their first album, A Song to Ruin. In 2004, Dean left the band to get married and was replaced by Tom Fowler, who contributed to sophomore album Harmony No Harmony, but other than a remix of a track by U.K. hip-hop artist <a href="spotify:artist:4R2I3qg7w3EJGki5cqS2Cd">Blade</a>, it was the last recording by the group, whose members announced their split due to irreconcilable differences in 2005. <a href="spotify:artist:27M9shmwhIjRo7WntpT9Rp">Turner</a> launched a solo career with a new folk-punk direction, releasing the albums Sleep Is for the Week, Love Ire & Song, and Poetry of the Deed; Ruzicka joined <a href="spotify:artist:4waRXR1luGWkwHOPZUjz2W">Future of the Left</a> and played in various bands with Fowler, including Quiet Kill and Who Owns Death TV; and Dawson became a drummer for the likes of <a href="spotify:artist:4VvgircjTNslqbdDYFJMSp">Palehorse</a> and Armed Response Unit. ~ Jon O'Brien, Rovi