June 22, 2010

One of the many bands we're watching on the summer tour circuit this year is the alt-metal group Flyleaf. Led by singer-songwriter Lacey Mosley, the band has been on the road almost nonstop since the beginning of this year, first supporting Breaking Benjamin and Three Days Grace, then headlining the Unite & Fight Tour with 10 Years and Fair to Midland. Still to come are performances at this week's Summerfest and the Rock the River Tour. Check the Flyleaf website here for their full schedule.

Flyleaf's most recent single from their second album, Memento Mori, is "Missing." It's a supercatchy offering that showcases some powerful (and angst-filled) vocals. The inspiration for the song and its video (below) came from the fan mail and emotional support the band has received in recent years. Its message: to encourage empowerment and let young people know they have control over their lives.

By Johnny K

April 14, 2010

When Flyleaf last played in London, as support to Korn in 2008, few people would have put much money on them going on to do anything particularly stand-out of their own.  Back then, the quintet’s relatively indistinct image, coupled with the fact that they were supporting Jonathan Davis’ mob, had casual onlookers pigeonholing them alongside nu-metal types like P.O.D. and Evanescence.

Two years on, though, and frontwoman Lacey Mosley’s arrival onstage in an elegant red dress is greeted by the spine-tingling noise of an audience who have been completely enraptured by her and her band’s charms.  Where once they struggled to stand out from the crowd, tonight they’re a unit full of charisma and their arsenal of consuming, soul-searching choruses makes a much, much bigger impact.  The natural confidence with which Lacey heralds the crunching intro to Fully Alive is intoxicating.  She puts her hands in the air, flutters through a flurry of twirls, and the venue explodes at her fingertips.  

The band make no bones, either, about the fact that their spiritual center is a vital part of their DNA, with Lacey sincerely telling the crowd “God loves you” as the uplifting, Paramore-esque Arise draws to a close.  Surprisingly, there’s something clearly universal about Flyleaf’s Christian philosophy but perhaps that’s down to their inclusive and accessible delivery of it.  Songs such as the unsettling Cassie and the thunderstorm-heralding Chasm aren’t about preaching, but instead unite the crowd with their strong spirit of looking for help during hard times.  Music that probes the audience with such love-it-or-hate-it higher power profession and gritty imagery needs to be supported by real strength of character, and that’s exactly what Flyleaf – well, Lacey, who’s a star in the making – are in possession of now.  Finally, they’re showing what they’re made of and it’s only a matter of time before Flyleaf really takes off in the UK like they have Stateside.