It would be difficult to imagine a wilder ride than the one taken by suburban Detroit Post Hardcore/Metal outfit I Prevail. The quartet — which expands to a touring sextet — coalesced in 2013, played a handful of shows and immediately began assembling its debut recording, 2014’s Heart vs. Mind on Fearless Records. The eight-song EP featured mostly original material in a signature style of Electronic-flecked Metal, characterized by the clean/dirty vocals of Brian Burkheiser and Eric Vanlerberghe, respectively, as well as the manic yet melodic guitar squall of Steve Menoian and Jordan Berger and the Valhalla-or-bust drum thunder of Lee Runestad.
The band’s ace-in-the-hole on Heart vs. Mind was a scorchingly brilliant cover of Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space,” which the band posted on YouTube prior to the EP’s release. The cover created a massive buzz, landing the band in the lower reaches of Billboard’s Hot 100 singles but vaulting them into the Top 25 of the Mainstream Rock Songs chart. As of this writing, I Prevail’s version of “Blank Space” has notched more than 24 million views on YouTube.
Shortly after the release of Heart vs. Mind, Berger quit I Prevail, citing his inability to commit to the band in the long term; he was replaced by guitarist Dylan Bowman around the same time that bassist Tony Camposeo was added to lineup, both as touring members. The huge response to “Blank Space” opened up a number of road opportunities for I Prevail, including opening slots for Crown the Empire, Hollywood Undead and Pop Evil, leading to the group’s current headlining circuit. At the same time, the band turned down a lot of work and maintained a low local profile while working on the material that will comprise Lifelines, its imminent full-length debut. Although no release date has been confirmed, the first single from the album, “Scars,” premiered earlier this month, with Burkheiser reporting that it was the first song written for the new album and thus the one that established the framework for the project as a whole.
Fiercely proud of its Detroit heritage and passionately committed to the idea that its music and message have to be relevant before presented to the world, I Prevail is perfectly poised to be the next big voice of Post Hardcore.
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