Holy Blade: Tied Down 2025
Holy Blade could easily be considered a hardcore supergroup (much like I mentioned Face The Pain is). With members of God’s Hate, Freedom, Forced Order, True Love, and Cosmic Joke, this LA-outfit set out to be a little different than every one of their other projects. Colin Young (the multi-talented hardcore legend and co-host of the podcast HardLore) brings a little bit of his influence from his time as vocalist in Twitching Tongues, but you can tell the material they’ve released is mainly influenced by the former Detroit resident, Alec Faber, who is the lead vocalist and plays guitar alongside Young.
Holy Blade is a perfect band for those who think hardcore is missing a more emo/alternative edge these days. With Faber’s vocal style that is reminiscent of Davey Havok of AFI, mixed with the gritty brutality that the Colin and Taylor Young bring to every single band they take part in, Holy Blade does a great job at blending the hard rock genres of punk, hardcore, and emo. With plenty of experience as musicians, it’s no surprise that this band gained so much popularity in such a short amount of time. Their debut EP dropped in August 2024 on Closed Casket Activities, and has been streamed tens of thousands of times with the track Only The Dead receiving over 182,000 streams so far.
Seeing as Holy Blade hasn’t been around long enough to play any other year of Tied Down, this will be their debut year. They played last month at LDB 2025 (as seen in Diazable Music Breakdown’s video) and they were well received. I anticipate the same at Tied Down this year. The members of this band have a bunch of friends playing Tied Down, and not a single member is a stranger to the fest. It’ll be a really fun set that no one will want to miss. Expect the two-steppers and stage divers to be in full force.
Find them on Instagram.
Album I listened to: Holy Blade
Favorite track: Blood Marker
No paid promotion. This series is not endorsed by any of the bands or festivals being written about. Doing this for the love of the game.