Holding Absence

Holding Absence
Origin	Cardiff, Wales
Genres	Post-hardcore
Years active	2015-present
Labels	SharpTone
Website	www.holdingabsence.com
Members	James Joseph Ashley Green Lucas Woodland Scott Carey Chris Smitheram
Past members	Zac Vernon Giorgio Cantarutti Feisal El-Khazragi

Holding Absence are a post-hardcore band from Cardiff, Wales formed in 2015. The group consists of lead vocalist Lucas Woodland, guitarists Scott Carey and Chris Smitheram, bassist James Joseph and drummer Ashley Green.

The band released an initial collection of singles in 2017, as well as a split EP with Loathe in 2018, before finally releasing their debut record "Holding Absence" in 2019. They are signed with SharpTone Records.

History

Formation, singles and the This Is As One EP (2015-2018)

The band initially formed in 2015 fronted by current Parting Gift vocalist Zac Vernon, however he soon parted ways with the band leaving the door open to current vocalist Lucas Woodland. Upon Lucas's joining of the band in 2016, Holding Absence swiftly released their debut single and video for "Permanent". The band would soon go on to follow up the release of "Permanent" with their contrasting single "Dream Of Me", gaining the attention of US-based record label "Sharptone Records".

2017 saw the band sign to SharpTone Records, celebrating with a physical release of the double-A side single Permanent/Dream of Me. The following few months were spent touring the UK alongside several bands, including Blood Youth and We Are The Ocean, before eventually performing at the prestigious Download Festival in Donington.

Soon after Download, the band released their third single "Penance". A 6 minute long track about "the journey towards happiness". Before the year was out, the band toured the UK again supporting Young Guns, and soon after released their fourth single "Heaven Knows".

Before the year was up, Holding Absence announced a surprise split EP with label mates Loathe, as well as dropping their 5th single "Saint Cecilia". "This Is As One" dropped in March 2018, accompanied by a unique co-headline tour with the two bands. According to Woodland, "the split came about both at a stage in our careers where we could have benefited from releasing music, but also we wanted to do something a little different". This tour was Holding Absence's first foray into European territory and on the UK leg the bands opted to hand-pick the support acts for each date, including artists such as Sleep Token, Modern Error and Parting Gift.

Line-up changes and the release of Holding Absence (2018-2019)

Soon after returning from the "This Is As One" tour, founding member and guitarist Feisal El-Khazragi left the band, it was later announced that he had joined Loathe on bass duties.

A new-look Holding Absence (including future guitarists Scott Carey and Chris Smitheram) made their first live appearances at Slam Dunk Festival , before jetting off to Europe again, this time to support Being As An Ocean. The band went on to win the Cardiff Music Award for "Best Breakthrough Band", as well as being nominated at the Heavy Music awards for the "Best UK Breakthrough Band". After finishing the summer by playing sporadic UK festivals Holding Absence went on to close the year off with their biggest tour yet supporting fellow UK Post-Hardcore band As It Is, alongside Trash Boat and Courage My Love.

In support of this tour, HA released "Like A Shadow", the first single off the, at the time, unannounced debut album. After the uncertainty with the bands line-up earlier in the year, Like A Shadow was seen as a welcomed re-introduction to the band and their new line-up.

Later in the year, Holding Absence finally announced that their debut self-titled record would be released on March 8th 2019 and subsequently released 3 more singles before the album release, Perish, You Are Everything and Monochrome.

Woodland mentions in several interviews how hard the song-writing process was. In regards to El-Khazragi's leaving the band he said that the "line-up change happened not just mid-album, but mid-recording" and how the band "were left having to write and record another half of the album" without him. The record was also recorded in two parts, which caused the band further complications while trying to get it finished. Woodland believes that the changes benefitted the record in the end, as tracks like "Wilt", "Monochrome" and "Like A Shadow" wouldn't have existed if the band remained in it's original form. .

Holding Absence was finally released via Sharptone Records on March 8th and was instantly received well critically and commercially. Kerrang gave it 4K's stating that the album was a "brilliantly told tale of love and life, and a superb example of how to stretch the limits of what Post-Hardcore can achieve., as well as giving the album a 9/10, Dead Press expressed, though a long-time coming, Holding Absence "prove[d] that art cannot be rushed, relinquishing a stellar debut that bares the human soul, emotion, and conviction in abundance".

In aid of the record release Holding Absence hit the road, playing some of their biggest UK shows to date, joined by Luke Rainsford and The Nightmares. A short while after this tour, Holding Absence returned to Europe for the fourth time, alongside Counterparts and Being As An Ocean.

Members

Current members

• James Joseph - bass, 2015-present
• Ashley Green - drums, 2016-present
• Lucas Woodland - vocals, 2016-present
• Scott Carey - guitar, 2019-present
• Chris Smitheram - guitar, 2019-present

Past Members

• Zac Vernon - vocals, 2015-2016
• Giorgio Cantarutti - guitar, 2015-2017
• Feisal "Fez" El-Khazragi - guitar, 2015-2018

Discography

Holding Absence discography
Studio albums	1
EPs	1
Singles	3

Search Holding Absence on Amazon. Search Holding Absence on Amazon.

Albums

Title	Album details
Holding Absence	Released: 8 March 2019 Label: SharpTone, Nuclear Blast Format: Music download, CD and Vinyl

EPs

Title	Album details
This Is As One	Released: 16 February 2018 Label: SharpTone, Nuclear Blast Format: Music download and Vinyl Notes: Split EP with Loathe

Singles

Title	Year	Album
"Permanent/Dream of Me"	2017	Non-Album Single
"Penance"
"Heaven Knows"

References

This article "Holding Absence" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Holding Absence. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

This page exists already on Wikipedia.

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