Sleeping Giant are bringing it home to Facedown Records to say goodbye with their final project “I Am,” set to release tomorrow!
Vocalist Tommy Green reflects on the past 12 years: “For me personally this band has been such an important and special gift in my life that I needed to know that I was actually at a point where I could let go and move on. I didn’t want to feel grief like there was something unexpressed, unsaid, or undone in me; I didn’t want to feel like I was selling myself out. This band has become the private journal made public of the story of my life. It is one of the most important things I have ever done. It’s crazy and beautiful and hard and awesome and cathartic and creative all at the same time. I thank God for hardcore. I have been able to express my passion and my pain over the last 12 years.”
“At Facedown Fest 2016,” Green continues, “we talked to JD and asked him if he would consider helping us to say goodbye. We wanted to finish where we started and show respect and honor for the label that helped us get our first exposure and created space for us to grow at home in Southern California. Stepping away from Facedown and becoming a traveling band and working with so many others, it became evident that there is something really special about Facedown; honestly this is just such a gift for the FD crew to be willing to take this on as a last project.”
Sleeping Giant represents a call to arms. More than a band, more than a group of close friends, Sleeping Giant is a unit of disciples who scream loud from deep in the underground to the highest of the heavens.
“Since Sleeping Giant formed in 2006, they have been rewriting the definition of what it means to be Christians in a metal band,” wrote Relevant Magazine. “They pulverize all preconceived notions of worship music.”
They proclaim strength through submission to Jesus Christ across their latest album, Kingdom Days in an Evil Age. They’ve headlined Scream The Prayer; appeared at major Christian music festivals; toured with bands like Demon Hunter and Bleeding Through. Wherever they are called, their message remains the same: salvation.
Many bands call upon their audience to worship at the alter of false idolatry. Sleeping Giant, in opposition to the norms of the music business, invokes the Holy Spirit instead. They beg the Holy Spirit to enter into the clubs, schools, homes, hearts and minds of the lost, the forsaken, the left behind, the downtrodden, the meek.
Across three studio albums, North and South American tours and with social networking worldwide, Sleeping Giant calls for nothing short of breakthrough for the broken, by any means necessary. Their stage shows often erupt into full-on praise and worship. They’ve baptized on the streets of Bogota, born witness in neighborhoods where many fear to tread and offered up their own testimonies to the tattooed brawlers they grew up with.
The close friendship between singer Tommy Green and guitarist Eric Gregson creates a family type atmosphere forged by shared experience, evocative communication, militant ministry based in love and evangelism within the band as a whole. It’s a true brotherhood. Green’s pastoral duties at Revolution Reality put him in Salt Lake City. Eric shepherds Tithemi Outreach and runs a merchandise business in Redlands, California, where he’s alongside guitarist and co-songwriter Geoff Brouilette and bassist JR Bermuda.
All four men grew up in the California hardcore scene and at one time or another played together in the multi-member straight edge outfit xDeathstarx. Eclectic tastes running the gamut from old-school hardcore to metal of all stripes (and beyond) formed Sleeping Giant’s musical nucleus, as evidenced by the dense power of their pair of inaugural releases: Dread Champions of the Last Days (2007) and Sons of Thunder (2009).
Kingdom Days in an Evil Age is Sleeping Giant’s crowning achievement. The atmosphere, energy and almost meditatively succinct approach of their driving and rhythmic music shares many strengths with bands like Gojira, Neurosis, Blood Has Been Shed and Isis. The heart and the spirit of Sleeping Giant is found in the lyrics and furthermore in the vocal delivery of Green (and often, Gregson) throughout the performances. Each of the men in Sleeping Giant, including new drummer Matt Weir, approach each show with focus and purpose.
Sleeping Giant commands the sleepwalking within the church to awaken and spread the love of Jesus Christ across the world. Sleeping Giant, acting in unison as more than the sum of their parts, commands their brethren to break loose from the shackles of short-sightedness, laziness and arrogance and embrace all of God’s children. Their message is forthright, outspoken, militant and immediate. Their presentation is passionate, reverent and worshipful. Sleeping Giant is no mere band. Sleeping Giant is the sound of reckoning.
Green reflects, “Our last show will be 12 years to the date of our first back home where we began.”
“I couldn’t and wouldn’t have done this,” Green continues, “risked speaking and sharing my personal story without all of the people that have made this band: Massive Matt, Travis Boyd, Cory Johnson, Geoff Broullete, Eric Gregson, Matt Weir, Ryan Gregson, JR Bermuda, Nelson Flores, Lazarus Rios, Blake Hardman, Andrew Minervini, and Andrew Glover. Respect for your sacrifices and for your gifts and talents and efforts. You are all a part of Sleeping Giant.”
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