rock

Story of the Year

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St. Louis screamo-adjacent survivors of the early-2000s emo boom, still built around gang vocals, acrobatic stage energy and 'Until the Day I Die.'

Story of the Year began in the St. Louis area in 1995 under the name 67 North, playing nu metal, before evolving into Big Blue Monkey and finally settling on its current name in 2002. Guitarist Ryan Phillips and drummer-turned-vocalist Dan Marsala anchored the lineup through those changes, which also brought bassist Adam Russell into the fold, and the band relocated to Orange County, California, before its major-label breakthrough.

The group's sound combines melodic emo and pop-punk songwriting with screamed passages and gang vocals, placing it among the post-hardcore-leaning acts that dominated rock radio in the mid-2000s.

Page Avenue arrived in 2003 on Maverick Records and turned Story of the Year into a rock-radio fixture. Its lead single, "Until the Day I Die," remains the band's best-known work, and the follow-up single, "Anthem of Our Dying Day," had a video directed by Linkin Park's Joe Hahn.

A second album, In the Wake of Determination, followed in 2005 but did not match its predecessor's success. The band later left Maverick for the independent label Epitaph, releasing The Black Swan in 2008 and The Constant in 2010.

In 2017 the band crowdfunded its fifth album, Wolves, working with producer Aaron Sprinkle and mixers Tom Lord-Alge and J Hall. Bassist Adam Russell returned to the lineup in 2023 for Tear Me to Pieces, followed by a world tour into 2024. The band has continued recording and touring in the years since, with a live show known for its physical, high-energy presentation.

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