Tuscaloosa’s Gideon returned from a string of national tours Friday and performed at The Forge in Birmingham alongside a mix of hardcore bands, including New Jersey’s The Mongoloids, Florida’s Coldhearted, Birmingham’s reuniting Rival and Decatur’s Belial.
On the back of two full-length releases and a bevy of tours, recently highlighted by a spot on the 2012 Scream The Prayer Tour led by Christian metal giants Demon Hunter and alt-rock quartet Emery, Gideon has grown into a nationally recognized segment of the melodic and Christian hardcore tapestries.
Bassist Timmy Naugher said it was the summer of 2009 when he, guitarist Daniel McCartney and drummer Jake Smelley and others decided to form a Tuscaloosa-based hardcore punk outfit. The group today still shows its Tuscaloosa roots – Naugher himself attended The University of Alabama for two years – by wearing UA gear on stage and a collective passion for Crimson Tide football.
Once the whole of the band had graduated high school in 2010, they began serious touring. It was while on tour with recently disbanded metal outfit As Hell Retreats in California that Strike First Records (Facedown Records’ imprint label), attended a show, which resulted in the band’s signing. After gaining vocalist Daniel McWhorter from Mississippi’s The Advocate, Gideon recorded and released their first full-length album “Costs.”
“When we decided we were going to do this, we decided to do it for real,” Naugher said. “Us touring so consistently these past years has been a key to our growth. I don’t think we’d be as far as we’ve come right now otherwise.”
This July, a year after the release of “Costs” and their signing to Facedown Records, the group managed to write, record and release their second outing, “Milestone.”
A part of the Alabama hardcore scene since 2005, Naugher spoke to the scene’s strength and consistency in-state, especially in Birmingham, despite a dip in available venues. However, the hardcore scene at large is no stranger to do-it-yourself staging or, additionally, stigmas proclaiming hate and violence.
“I think that’s a perception that’s put on hardcore,” Naugher said. “When you look at it and hear people screaming, that’s a stereotype that’s assumed.”
Naugher said someone outside of the sub-culture witnessing the thrashing dancers, mosh pits and aggressive music of a hardcore show would undoubtedly face culture shock; however, despite its appearance, the genre cannot be taken at face value, he said.
“I think if people really took a minute and sat down with kids who go and ask them why they go, they’ll see it’s not about hate,” he said. “There are a lot of positive things and positive bands out there. Hardcore’s become all about lifting each other up and standing together.”
Naugher highlighted their own release “Milestone” as an album speaking not only to pain and personal hardships, but also faith and hope.
“There are angry parts of the lyrics, but it’s us releasing that emotion and getting it out, while letting other people know that you can get through it, too,” he said.
Opening Friday’s show was the band Belial, which formed in 2011 and has since released an untitled album through Bandcamp in February and plays shows across the state. Vocalist Brady Lett said they play in traditional hardcore styling with varied influences from Mastodon to surf-rock. He said their lyrics are similarly varied and, at times, purpose driven.
“Most of [our lyrics] are things that people have done that I wasn’t necessarily a fan of, and it’s sometimes nonsense and sometimes a little silly,” Lett said. “But most of the time it’s about people doing things that I think are a little [messed] up.”
