This Time It's War

This Time It’s War began officially in 2004, after longtime friends John Gammon, Justin Lawson, and Alan Simpson decided to take their after-school jams a little more seriously. After adding Brandon Rickey on bass in early 2004, they began playing shows around the Richmond area that spring and summer under the name “Still Life”. Late that year, vocalist Blake Bryant was added to the band, and the name was changed to This Time It’s War to reflect their newly completed lineup.

Still in high school, the group spent all of 2005 and 2006 playing countless shows all over Virginia as well as several weekend tours, notably with fellow Virginia band Love In The Time of Cholera. This set the foundation for their sizable local fanbase in the VA/MD/DC area, sharing the stage with bands like August Burns Red, Scarlet, and a host of others.

Mid-2006 saw the departure of Blake on vocals, and the addition of a friend, Reeves Hankins, as the new singer. After a couple of months of touring and playing shows with Reeves, however, the band decided to part with him and soon after that recruited Bobby Hazelwood on vocals. Entering Planet Red studios that year, TTIW recorded a demo that included old favorites such as “Riddles”, “Into the Abyss” and “The Lord of the Flies”.

2007 was a year of change. The year began with a self-booked tour of the southeast, and in spring 2007 the band unveiled a demo of a new song, “11:34”. The sound was a big departure from their previous material, a result of a few years of experience under their belt and a desire to start doing something different in the over-saturated music scene.

That summer, two big changes were made. TTIW parted ways with Bobby, feeling that they still had never found quite the right singer for the job. They decided to take a couple of months to search out the perfect vocalist, and in the meantime played the Virginia Beach, VA date of the 2007 Warped Tour with friend Ian Robinson (ex-We Were Gentlemen) filling in on vocals. After a long search, the band welcomed Scott Quigley (ex-The Kidnapping, ex-An Awakening) as their new vocalist. He has proven to be a perfect fit and a huge asset to the band.

Right after the addition of Scott, however, the band was hit with another blow as Brandon decided to quit. Living at Virginia Beach temporarily at the time, TTIW relocated back home to Richmond to regroup and get back on their feet. The search for a new bassist was underway, and in a short time Jeff Jennings, a friend of Scott’s from northern Virginia, was recruited as the new bassist.

With the lineup that they’d always been looking for, the band hit the road in late 2007 with Years Spent Cold (Eulogy Records) for a full U.S. tour. Returning home in 2008, they hit the studio once again to record new demo tracks with the new lineup. “Dead World”, “Manic Dependence”, and an updated version of “1134” were recorded, and in 2008 the band played more shows than ever before, touring in the summer with Periphery and Murderwalk and playing shows with bands like Darkest Hour, Arsis, Misery Signals, Municipal Waste, and Lamb of God.

In late 2009, TTIW entered Planet Red Studios in Richmond, VA to track their first official full-length record. This album was intended to solidify the past several years of development as a band and serve as the definitive This Time It’s War from that point forward. After going through several studio delays and an ill-fated record label experience, they finally released “Terror Plots” in November 2010 on their own.