Championed in the press as "the saviours of U.K. metal" the British industrial-metal five-piece the Defiled originally formed in London in 2005 and quickly set about their rise to fame by embarking on copious national tours. Their first proper EP, 1888, appeared in 2009 -- after numerous demos where circulated between the band and fans -- but it wasn't until 2011 that the band's debut album, Grave Times, appeared. In a clever piece of promotional ingenuity, the album was released for free on the cover of British metal magazine Metal Hammer and later followed by a deluxe edition available from retailers. That same year Metal Hammer crowned the group Best New Band at their 2011 Golden Gods awards. The five-piece continued to tour throughout 2012, with performances at South by South West and numerous supporting slots, including tours with Dragonforce and Gojira. Using the pledgemusic website to fund their second album, the band headed to Florida to record with Jason Suecof (Trivium, the Black Dahlia Murder). In March 2013, the group announced that they had signed a deal with Nuclear Blast, who released their sophomore album, Daggers, in the August of that year. ~ Rich Wilson