Asking Alexandria

British melodic emocore unit Asking Alexandria were initially formed (and quickly disbanded) by singer-guitarist Ben Bruce in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in the mid-'00s. Despite the fact that they recorded an album, Bruce broke up the band and returned to England, eventually contacting old friends and launching an entirely new unit in 2008. The two bands share a name but, according to Bruce, have no connection to one another. The second iteration of Asking Alexandria released its debut in 2009, Stand Up and Scream. Combining the grumbling chug of death metal with high-speed runs, mall-ready radio-metal choruses and the dancefloor moves of crabcore bands (read: synths), Asking Alexandria position themselves squarely in the no-man's land between earnest metalcore and the party-mongering of such contemporaries as Brokencyde and 3OH!3. The EP Life Gone Wild (featuring a pair of Skid Row covers) appeared in 2010, and their second album, Reckless and Relentless, surfaced in early 2011.