Formed in 2009 and scattered around the various South Wales valleys SMILER are a 4 piece hardcore punk rock band who take their influences from a
wide range of artists both old and new. From blues rock inspired heavy metal pioneers Motorhead and Black Sabbath to hardcore punk, crust and power
violence legends such as Black Flag, Crass, Napalm Death, Discharge, Agnostic Front, Hard to Swallow and Spazz not forgetting D-Beat heroes Drop Dead.
In the past, members of SMILER have run with a number of underground punk rock bands including January Thirst, Four Letter Word, The Cull,
George Annihilation and the Legion of Hate, Spider Kitten, Drop Dead Darling. Their soon to be released mini album ‘Con-demned’
was recorded in December 2010 at the infamous Music Box studios in Cardiff, lovingly produced and engineered by Chi Lameo (Spider Kitten) and
mastered by Californian sonic artist Drew Webster (Die Elektrischen / Dielectric Records). It’s pretty safe to say the band have never sounded so
good... and there’s a fair chance they never will again!
2010 saw the band step up a gear with the arrival of a new ‘punk as fuck’ drummer, acquiring support slots with the mighty Subhumans and Discharge
and unbelievably for a band accustomed to doing everything themselves a record deal of sorts with underground label Seven Records.
The bands socio-political lyrical content and frantic sound is more a by-product of doing something they love than a premeditated attack on corrupt
societies degenerating values... even if our leaders are a bunch of absolute ‘cockheads’.
SMILER are:
Michael Davies:- vocals
Gavin Gates:- bass
Ioan Thomas:- guitar
Mikee Brown:- drums
|