Battlecross

Battlecross
Battlecross in July 2013
Background information
Origin	Canton, Michigan, United States
Genres	Thrash metal,melodic death metal
Years active	2003–present
Labels	Metal Blade
Associated acts	Woe of Tyrants, All Shall Perish
Website	Battlecrossmetal.com
Members	Tony Asta Hiran Deraniyagala Don Slater Kyle Gunther Brian Zink
Past members	Jay Saling Jason Leone Marshall Wood Mike Kreger Michael Heugel

Battlecross is an American extreme metal band from Canton, Michigan, United States. The band has described their sound as "Blue Collar Thrash Metal".

The band was founded in 2003 by Tony Asta and Hiran Deraniyagala in Canton, MI, where the childhood best friends and neighbors formed the earliest beginnings of Battlecross while attending Salem High School. Various members came and went. In 2006, vocalist Marshall Wood was hired who brought a new level of aggression ultimately altering the vocal direction of the band. In 2007, drummer Mike Kreger was hired. In 2008 and 2010 respectively, bassist Don Slater and singer Kyle "Gumby" Gunther joined the band, after Marshall's departure for family reasons. Together, they played local shows around Detroit and in the Midwest and opened for such acts as Dying Fetus, GWAR, DevilDriver, The Absence, Vital Remains and The Faceless.

In 2010, Battlecross self-released their debut album Push Pull Destroy. In late 2010, the band caught the eye of Metal Blade Records while members were replacing their vocalist, Marshall Wood. The band tapped Kyle "Gumby" Gunther of the Flint, MI-area band and management roster mate, I Decay, to front the band. Gunther stepped in to re-record the album and rewrote the track Aiden, renaming it Kaleb after his newborn son. The re-recorded album, Pursuit of Honor, was released in August 2011 by Metal Blade Records and was recorded at Random Awesome Recording Studio in Bay City, Michigan and produced by Josh Schroeder.

Pursuit of Honor produced three singles. ‘Push Pull Destroy,’ ‘Man of Stone’ and ‘Breaking You,’ which combined, spent 50 weeks on SiriusXM Liquid Metal ‘Devil’s Dozen’ list of most requested songs, with ‘Push Pull Destroy’ at the #1 spot for five weeks in Spring 2012. The accompanying video has racked up more than 1.8 million views on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miZLob1Hi4I and was the break-out track for these high-energy thrashers.