SHVPES

English post-hardcore outfit SHVPES took shape after an earlier project dissolved upon the arrival of vocalist Griffin Dickinson in 2015. That shift carried the group beyond its metalcore roots toward a harder-edged strain of alternative rock that incorporated hip-hop elements on the 2016 debut album Pain. Joy. Ecstasy. Despair.

The Birmingham collective had first appeared under the name Cytota, assembling in late 2009 and continuing quietly through 2014. Its original roster featured singer Joby Fitzgerald, bassist Oliver Pike, drummer Harry Jennings, and guitarists Ryan Hamilton and Youssef Ashraf, who mixed post-hardcore with metalcore and issued a lone EP in 2012. Fitzgerald departed in 2014, at which point Griffin Dickinson—incidentally the son of Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson—joined as replacement vocalist.

With the lineup in flux, the band adopted the SHVPES moniker and began folding in influences from hip-hop, nu metal, and alternative rock, often weaving rap passages and DJ record-scratching into the new songs. Several singles followed, the first being “Shapes” in 2015. After Pike exited, Grant Leo Knight took over on bass, and the revamped group finished its 2016 full-length Pain. Joy. Ecstasy. Despair. Extensive touring across Europe and the United States ensued, leading to the 2018 release of the follow-up album Greater Than.