Album Notes

“Imagine a bowl full of razor blades with candy syrup poured on top” - Dan Kimpel

- \"Heavy Crowns\" received many commercial rock radio spins across the USA in 2008
- First album \"Bigger Than You\" landed at 12 on the CMJ\'s Top 200 most added charts and had airplay on over 112 college radio stations across the US and Canada
- Touring regularly throughout the western US States including recent 2008 opening slot for Sevendust
- Strong internet presence with over 23,000 MySpace friends with over 160,000 page views and nearly 100,000 music player plays

In September 2008 Half The World released their second album The Death Defying Years, their heaviest yet most melodic, hook-filled offering to date. Featuring guitar driven hard modern rock with amazing female vocals by beautiful, energetic front-woman Mary Magill. Think Evanescence meets Breaking Benjamin, with enormous chorus hooks and the guitar energy of Helmet, Disturbed and Sevendust. Urgent, powerful vocal melodies are punctuated
by masterful lyrics in this huge wall of sound which is Half The World’s signature.

There’s a unique story and powerful meaning behind the album title says drummer / studio engineer Pete Weaver, “I was at a music conference where they played our music over the stereo in front of 2000 people with a panel of A&R reps from publishers on the stand. This was about 4 months before Evanescence broke wide in the US so we had never heard of them, no one had heard of them yet. After listening to our music one lady publisher announced that it doesn’t matter how hard your music rocks or how great the vocals are, even though it has huge hooks, if you’re playing hard rock with female vocals, unless the name of your band happens to be No Doubt or Kittie, then forget it. No one wants hard rock with female vocals. I was devastated. She was sentencing us to death in her own way only because we have female vocals in a hard rock / metal band. The message was fire your vocalist and get a guy singer or your doomed. We were determined to prove her wrong and we setup in my studio and began writing and recording for all we were worth. In spite of the death sentence she pronounced on us, these have become our death defying years. We are defying death because we refuse to accept her judgment of us.\"

Half The World’s previous album, \"Bigger Than You\", gained great momentum and visibility for the group achieving national radio airplay at over 112 stations across the US and Canada. Half The World has achieved a multi-state reputation for an incredible, energetic live show at mega-conferences like Austin’s SXSW, service as opening act for Sevendust and consistently touring throughout the western US building a large following. Tens of thousands of fans have massed together in support of Half The World on myspace.com

Hailing from Holland, lead singer Mary Magill -- with her striking visual presence and commanding, world-class voice -- is the band’s on-stage focal point. The rhythm section is
comprised of Mat Hansen on bass and Pete Weaver on drums and backup vocals (Pete also produces and engineers for the band). Sean Thompson and Brett Pedersen’s incandescent, razor-edged guitars generate the fire that electrifies this monumental wall of sound. Their music will appeal to fans of Breaking Benjamin, Evanescence, Three Days Grace, Paramore, Chevelle, Seether, Sevendust, Foo Fighters etc.