AccuRadio Song Of The Day-SONICFLOOd

Artist:SONICFLOOd

Song:Cry Holy

Album:Cry Holy

SONICFLOOd is a popular CCM band that did something very unusual but not unheard of. After two albums, they underwent a complete personnel overhaul with one original member remaining. And they kept the name. I guess that's the most unusual part. Most bands would have started over. SONICFLOOd is from Murfreesboro, TN which is a Nashville suburb. They were called Zilch when they were formed in 1997. They were dc Talk's touring band. They recorded a 1997 album for dc Talk's record label Gotee. The album was not considered to be serious CCM. Jeff Deyo was brought in as the new lead singer and they found that when they performed Praise & Worship (P&W), they got a great reaction from the crowd. Gotee suggested they record a P&W album. When some of the band didn't want to do that, Deyo started making changes including changing the band name to SONICFLOOd. When the 1999 album SONICFLOOd was released, the band was Deyo on vocals, Dwayne Larring on guitar and Aaron Blanton on drums. Otto Price played bass but he didn't want to tour so he was replaced by Rick Heil. He was in the band Big Tent Revival. Though the album did well and they topped the Christian charts a couple of times, there was conflict over the band's direction. They were going to disband except Heil wanted to continue if he could get the rights to the name. I presume he didn't want to start from scratch. But the band was completely different including Hell as lead singer. He brought in Tom Michael (guitar), Todd Shay (bass) and Brett Vargason (drums) from the John Cox Band and Big Tent Revival keyboardist David "Moose" Alan for the 2003 album Cry Holy. Marc Byrd of The Choir produced. They signed with INO Records. Heil was not only lead singer but he wrote a lot of the songs and was executive producer. So that's why on each SONICFLOOd album, the whole band turned over except for Heil. They seem more like a Rick Heil solo project than a band. SONICFLOOd recorded three albums for INO and then Heil started his own label. There is no comp of the INO recordings but Cry Holy is available as a budget CD. SONICFLOOd is still playing shows and occasional singles are released. But as I said, I think they have been a Rick Heil solo act since he took over. Here's the video for Cry Holy by SONICFLOOd.