04 Oct 2015 // A review by Epitomised_Drummer
In the last few years I've been seeing a remarkable decrease in the number of new Rock releases from New Zealand on mainstream TV and Radio. It's certainly not because of a decrease in the number of good bands, in fact if I'm honest, there is probably more rock bands floating around in NZ right now than there ever has been, they just don't seem to be as easy to find due to a big push from the electronic and roots scenes. One of the bands that you may or may not have heard of is a trio of Auckland based rockers called Armed In Advance.
 

JP, Hugh, and Daniel have previously released some damn solid rock singles and an EP under their previous band name 'Stitches' but opted for a more powerful new band name which I think really represents their more polished sound. 

Their new single Stay is nothing short of impressive. I have likened their previous singles to American lads Chevelle, but the closest comparison I can give to this would be alot more closely resembling Pennsylvania rockers Breaking Benjamin.  

It's heavy, intricate, concise, and melodic all built into one. The small riffy sections in the chorus really give you a sense of sucker-punching someone in a fight. I guess the perfect description for this song from me would be 'Passive-Aggressive'. It's bloody well mixed, and all of the instruments and vocals sit perfectly where they should within the mix, although the resulting track on YouTube sounds a little bit over-compressed (I think that's mainly just because it's YouTube). 

This is by far the best release from Armed In Advance (Stitches) so far, so I can't wait to hear what else they have to bring to the table further down the track. Awesome.

Armed In Advance are a heavy rock trio from Auckland with a penchant for ruthlessly efficient, hard hitting post-grunge songs laced with pop sensibilities and thought provoking undertones. Hailing from Auckland, the band is made up of JP Carroll (guitar and vocals), Hugh Hokopaura (bass) and Ryan Thomas (drums).

Since starting out in 2013 under the moniker of Stitches, AIA have released an EP (Stitches EP, 2014) and a full length (Change/Evolve, 2016), and have subsequently had the honor of 5 songs gracing the NZ rock radiowaves over that time. The most recent success of rotation play for single Same Old Story on the country’s biggest rock radio station, the Rock FM, paved the way for a debut full length album described as “refreshing… modern hard rock with a point of difference.” (Muzic.net.nz)
Change/Evolve reached #9 on the NZ album charts, and was accompanied by a sold out Auckland release show. Two tracks from Change/Evolve were deemed worthy of NZ On Air funded music video grants (Same Old Story, Running You Down).

Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for Armed In Advance

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