10 Years: “A Decade Ahead of Themselves”

In most instances three years is not a heck of a lot of time for a band to form, record two records, and get signed to a major record label. Nevertheless, a Tennessee based quartet of zealous young musicians known as 10 Years, have seemingly crammed a decade’s worth of experience and musical maturity into a short but intense three year span. Even though this group is new on the scene (they only formed three years ago), they have still managed to roar to levels of success unlike most other new hard music artists.

Shortly after their initial formation 10 Years compiled and recorded an album entitled Killing All That Holds You and began establishing a rather extensive underground fan-following. Driven by a combination of a love for their music and a fierce drive to express their highly intelligent socio-cultural ideologies through song, the band progressed forwards in their career so rapidly that by 2005, they were already signing a recording contract with prominent record label Republic/Universal.

Without a doubt for a band to form, self produce an album, get signed by a huge record label, and produce a follow-up album all within a three year period, is a borderline insane albeit awe-inspiring feat. Nonetheless, in spite of their hectic schedules and obscene workload, 10 Years only continues to progress forwards. Shortly after their place in the Republic/Universal roster was solidified, the band entered the studio and began preparing their first-ever non-independent release. With some help from prominent producer Josh Silver (Staind, Velvet Revolver), the band successfully forged an amazing compilation of thirteen impressive songs and in June 2005 released The Autumn Effect.

Boasting a solid new rock sound and songs crammed with seriously rich lyrical content, 10 Years has proven that they are not only gifted musicians worthy of their acclaim, but also highly talented lyricists. Other than the assault of catchy tunes (and trust me this is one album that you will not easily tire of) one of the most impressive aspects about the band’s music is the high level of aptitude included in each song’s lyrics. With themes ranging from generic life-lessons to that of more concentrated socio-cultural issues, 10 Year’s music boasts a wide variety of specific messages.

No doubt, this certainly is a refreshing relief from the numerous amounts of “mathematically” constructed music which currently plagues the rock world. Sadly, rock music today is not always based on raw emotions, personal feelings, or pressing socio-political matters. In some cases artists are even corporate composites derived to either maintain the growth of a current trend or to simply generate some quick and easy cash. Fortunately however, 10 Years manages to entirely avoid this nonsense and delves much further into their music than many other artists. As a result, their music remains emotionally-charged and ripe with pertinent cultural content.

Intelligent song-writing aside however, 10 Years remains all about the music. Spending taxingly-long hours on the road, the band still manages to each night produce an intense stage presence and incredibly entertaining live show. This combination of dedication and zest for their music is no doubt one of the major contributors to their ever-growing popularly. There is something to be said about dedication and work ethic for it has definitely paid off for these musicians. Now as their reputation and recognition only continues to climb, it will be extremely interesting to see what the next 10 years holds for this band.   [ END ]