Far-Less

Priding themselves on being difficult to classify, Virginia's Far-Less create their individual sound by merging elements of rock, metal, and pop together with a positive edge. The band's five members — Brandon Welch (vocals), Ray Felts (drums), Joseph Powers (bass), Jordan Powers (guitar/vocals), and Mark Karsten (guitar) — claim influences across the board from Shadows Fall to, strangely enough, Huey Lewis. They first formed in 2001 as a trio with Felts and the brothers Powers coming together following the demise of other area bands. They independently released the Emerge EP that same year, and fan-turned-vocalist Brandon Welch entered the lineup soon afterwards.

A more sonically focused EP, Apossibility, was released in 2002, and Far-Less continued to build a solid fan base across Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. About a year after Welch's arrival, the group yielded its first full-length, Broken Hearts Unite, issued on Silent Uproar Records and produced by Jamie King. Label heads showed interest upon the album's release, and the guys wound up signing with Tooth & Nail in the fall of 2004. Not wasting any time, they quickly released the Turn to the Bright EP that November, a more mature songwriting endeavor that consequently brought raised expectations for February 2006's Everyone Is Out to Get Us. A Toast to Bad Taste followed in 2007.