Unlocking the Truth was an American
heavy metal band from
Brooklyn,
New York. Formed in 2007, the group consisted of Malcolm Brickhouse (guitars, vocals, key songwriter, composer), Jarad Dawkins (drums), and Alec Atkins (bass).
History
Founding members Malcolm Brickhouse (guitar, vocals) and Jarad Dawkins (drums), then in pre-school, met each other at a birthday party in 2005. Sharing similar tastes in music, they decided to create a band.[4] They felt their band needed a bassist but none of their friends were musicians, so they taught their school friend Alec Atkins how to play bass from scratch. Their street performances in
Times Square and around
New York City led to people recording and uploading videos of them to
YouTube and social media.
In 2014, the band signed a $1.8 million contract for five albums with
Sony Music Entertainment.[18] Due to the age of the members of the band, the contract had to be approved by the
New York Supreme Court.[19] In 2015, the band successfully negotiated their release from the contract with the label.[20] In April 2016, the band announced the release of their full-length debut album, Chaos. The album was released on June 17, 2016 via
TuneCore. A feature-length documentary film about the band, entitled Breaking a Monster, was released in the summer of 2016. Loudwire premiered their first music video "Take Control".[21]
They released a few more singles, "My Chains" (2017), "Come Closer" (2018), "Mama" (2018) and "Pretend" (2019). In January 2020, it was announced the band had ended and frontman Malcolm Brickhouse would be pursuing a solo career under the moniker Malxolm Brixkhouse.[22][23][24] He released the song "Rapture" in September 2021.[25]
Style and influences
Unlocking the Truth's sound has been described as "a salute to old-school metal that also blends modern influences."[26] In the Los Angeles Times, Randall Roberts wrote of their Coachella performance as "a hard, distorted blend of metal, speed punk and alternative rock on the main stage, they were as well-practiced as units three times their age."[27] Artist Direct says "they are the future of music."[28] The band has cited influences such as
Metallica,
Slipknot,
Disturbed,
Living Colour,
Escape the Fate,
Chelsea Grin, and
Motionless in White.[29]