Formed in 2007, Westerville, Ohio quintet the Crimson Armada found themselves on a meteoric rise through the extreme metal world. The band, consisting of Saud Ahmed (vocals/keyboards), Dan Hatfield (guitar), Josh Jardin (guitar), Chris Yates (bass/vocals), and David Puckett (drums), got together with the goal of creating metal that touched all the varied subgenres of extreme music while embedding a spiritual message in its lyrics, opting to veer away from the obsession with gore and blasphemy common in death/black metal. After a fruitful first year of recording demos and playing shows with acts like the Black Dahlia Murder and It Prevails, the group went on hiatus. In 2008, after some urging from the local music scene, the band made its return, recording the EP Behold the Architect and signing to Metal Blade. In July of 2009, the Crimson Armada released their full-length debut, Guardians, on Metal Blade. In 2011, they signed on with Artery Recordings, which released their second album, the more metalcore-influenced Conviction, later that same year. A year later, Saud Ahmed announced that he would be shifting his focus to his side project the Holy Guile, and that the Crimson Armada were disbanding. ~ Gregory Heaney