Black Tide biography
Black Tide is an American heavy metal band from Miami, Florida. Formed in 2004, the group is currently signed to Interscope Records and is composed of Gabriel Garcia (lead vocals and lead guitar), Austin Diaz (rhythm guitar and vocals), Zachary Sandler (bass and vocals), and Steven Spence (drums, percussion). They released their debut album, Light from Above, on March 18, 2008, through Interscope Records when Garcia was 15 years old. Their second album, Post Mortem, was released on August 23, 2011.
History
Formation and signing to Interscope Records (2004–2007)
Black Tide was founded in Miami, Florida in 2004 under the name "Radio" by guitarist Gabriel Garcia and his older brother Raul Garcia. Raul recruited second guitarist Alex Nuíħez, then later bassist Zachary Sandler. At the time, Gabriel Garcia was 11 years old and Nuíħez was just 13 years old. Garcia, Nuíħez, and Sandler recruited drummer Steven Spence, after Raul's departure from the group. This completed the band's lineup. The band started playing local shows, eventually gaining the attention of record labels due to the members' young age and talent. Winder Marin, the former drummer was dropped and a replacement was brought in to keep the young image of the band. In 2005, Black Tide signed a demo deal with Atlantic Records as Radio. The deal lasted for only a year, before the band was spotted by a record executive for EMI, who notified Interscope Records of the band. By mid 2007, now named Black Tide, they were signed to Interscope.
Light from Above (2007–2009)
The band started touring and gained a position on the second stage of Ozzfest, but were removed from the tour because the stage was sponsored by Jägermeister and all of the members of Black Tide were under the legal drinking age. Although the band was no longer appearing on the second stage, Black Tide was able to be the opening act on the main stage in some areas, opening for Lordi, Static-X, Lamb of God, and Ozzy Osbourne. After Ozzfest, the band toured with Avenged Sevenfold and All That Remains. They are well known partly due to their age.
In early 2007, half a year before playing Ozzfest, Black Tide entered the studio in Chicago, Illinois with producer Johnny K. The band recorded 12 new tracks which included a cover of Metallica's first written song, "Hit the Lights", which originally appeared on Kill 'Em All. The resulting album, Light from Above, was released on March 18, 2008. The album was critically praised, with Dan Epstein of Revolver Magazine saying "Listening to the debut album from Miami's Black Tide is a little like stumbling across a cool late-80s metal record you'd completely forgotten about. A very promising debut" and Scott Alisoglu of Blabbermouth.net stating the album contains "Big, sometimes pop-based, melodies meets crunchy, guitar-driven metal that falls somewhere between thrash/traditional metal and the dirtier end of '80s glam/hair metal." Light from Above debuted at number 73 on the Billboard 200, with 11,400 copies sold in its first week of sales. Black Tide has also won the Kerrang! Award for Best Newcomer.
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