Formed in Dallas, Texas in 1996, Seventh Day Slumber is a Christian alt-rock band that moves between rock, metal, and more adult pop-style fare. They're led by singer and main songwriter Joseph Rojas, a former cocaine addict who found faith and a new determination after surviving a near-fatal overdose. The founding lineup of Rojas, guitarist Evan Weatherford, bassist Joshua Schwartz, and drummer Adam Witte signed with Afinia Music, which released their debut album, Matthew Twenty-Five, in 1999. They moved to another independent label, Mercy Street, for 2001's Freedom from Human Regulations before Word released 2003's Picking Up the Pieces.nn The band then signed with BEC Recordings, which reissued an expanded Picking Up the Pieces as well as their fourth LP, Once Upon a Shattered Life, both in 2005. The latter marked their Billboard debut with appearances on the Heatseekers and Christian Albums charts. By that time, only Rojas and Schwartz remained from the original group. They followed it up with Finally Awake in 2007 and reached number 16 on the Christian albums chart, and the Spanish-language Rescátame ("Rescue Me") arrived a year later. March 2009 saw the release of Take Everything, which consisted of three original songs and nine reworked popular gospel tunes. Featuring Rojas, Schwartz, guitarist Jeremy Holderfield, and drummer Jamie Davis, it hit number 11 on the Christian chart and landed on the Billboard 200. The EP Take Everything: The Acoustic Sessions followed that fall. BEC then issued the collection A Decade of Hope in the spring of 2011. It was followed later the same year by Seventh Day Slumber's eighth studio LP, The Anthem of Angels, a Top 30 Christian album. Their first record without Schwartz, it featured bassist/guitarist Brent Milligan. The band parted ways with their longtime label after releasing Love & Worship, a more subdued mix of original songs and covers, in 2013.nn With distribution by Universal, VSR Music Group put out their next album, 2014's We Are the Broken, which returned them to the Heatseekers chart and the Christian Top 30. Trending back toward a more aggressive sound, the Redline EP was released in fall 2015. With the lineup of Rojas, Holderfield, bass player Ken Reed, and Joseph's son Blaise Rojas on drums, 2017's Found was informed by their bandleader's emergence from a bout of depression. ~ Marcy Donelson