The Underground Power EU print of A Crisis of Faith has sold out in the UK. The album was written between 2015-2017 and recorded in 2017 for a 2018 release and is the only studio release from that era of the band. The live album version recently sold out on CD as well. The album is still available in it’s UK format on CD and vinyl from here.
The Underground Power CD’s were only available in a limited run in the UK and have now sold out for good. Some copies are still available online some of which can be found here.
A Crisis of Faith Live has finally sold out on CD. The band will not be reprinting any more of these and the digital version of the album will become a members only release on Bandcamp which can be accessed here. The album was recorded live at the Asylum Chelmsford by Short Stack studios and features the A Crisis of Faith album in full and includes two tracks from The Waystone that features founding members of the band Dan Mailer and Josh Moreton.
Kaine’s second album The Waystone is close to selling out on CD for the 4th an final time. The Waystone is still the bands best selling album which released 6 years ago in 2014. The band in this era completed two tours, a UK tour and a Britain and Ireland tour supporting Mordred. Kaine also played Wildfire Festival 2015 in Scotland alongside Diamond Head, Tygers of Pan Tang, Holocaust and more.
The album has already been removed from streaming platforms such as Spotify and will be members only on bandcamp after the final 6 copies are sold. You can order one of these CD’s from here, which are cheaper direct from the band than on reselling sites. There is also a handful of patches available to buy on the merch section of Bandcamp.
We’ve dropped all our merch prices to £10 and below to coincide with Bandcamp dropping their fees for items sold on their site for 1 day only! That means in some cases you can get our merch for anything as low as £2-3! We’re also offering all our digital albums for £1.
There are less than 100 of most of the items here so please feel free to grab them while they are affordable.
The Waystone Patch – £2
Kaine X Shirts – £3
The Waystone + Justice, Injustice CD – £5
A Crisis of Faith CD [UK] – £5
A Crisis of Faith CD [EU] – £5
A Crisis of Faith LIVE CD – £5
A Crisis of Faith T-Shirt – £5
Reforge The Steel CD – £8
A Crisis of Faith Vinyl – £10
X Double Live Album CD – £10
X Double Live Album DVD – £10
All digital downloads £1 + One Free Download for anyone currently unwell or in isolation
December 29th, 2012 – Hole in the Wall, Colchester
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Dan Mailer: Bass/Vocals Anthony Murch: Lead Guitars Josh Moreton: Drums
Background: The band were offered a slot as a last-minute support for Coronach at the Hole in the Wall. Chris MacKinnon who had recently joined the band was unavailable for the gig so original drummer Josh Moreton filled in for the night where the band played its debut album Falling Through Freedom in its entirety for the first and only time.
May 16th, 2014 – The Barfly, Camden, London
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Dan Mailer: Bass/Vocals Anthony Murch: Lead Guitars James Balcombe: Drums
Background: James joined the band on the final show of the Renegades Tour with Monument when Chris had to perform for his university exams finals in Colchester on the same day. James joined the band for what was the most intense nights in the history of Kaine, as they dropped their association with MGR for management and as a record label that day due to incidents that occurred on that tour.
February 5th, 2016 – The Soundhouse, Colchester
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Chris MacKinnon: Drums/Vocals Saxon Davids: Lead Guitars and backing vocals Stephen Ellis: Bass Dan Mailer: Vocals
Background: Dan Mailer, who was at that time playing in Ipswich based Death Metal band Daemona joined the band onstage as guest vocalist for Solidarity during the bands set, a song which Rage broke a string and had to perform the final song of the night Quality of Madness as purely a vocalist. It was also the first gig the band played with the new four pieces line-up after Anthony Murch left making it the start of the Crisis of Faith era.
February 24th, 2017 – The Asylum, Chelmsford
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Chris MacKinnon: Drums/Vocals Saxon Davids: Lead Guitars and backing vocals Stephen Ellis: Bass Dan Mailer: Vocals Josh Moreton: Drums
Background: This was the night A Crisis of Faith live was recorded the band played a large number of the new album songs before they were even recorded at this show and were joined by Dan Mailer on vocals for Iron Lady and Solidarity and Josh Moreton on drums for the Iron Lady, a song he had never played with the band before. Chris joined Dan Mailer in joint lead vocals for Iron Lady.
April 15th, 2017 – Hope & Anchor, Islington, London
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Saxon Davids: Lead Guitars and backing vocals Stephen Ellis: Bass James Balcombe: Drums
Background: Chris was unable to do the show, so long time band friend James Balcombe of Osmium Guillotine stepped in to perform on the night for the second time. The set was recorded and is available to bandcamp members here.
May 20th, 2017 – The Smokehouse, Ipswich
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Stephen Ellis: Bass Ant Murch: Lead Guitars and Backing Vocals Josh Moreton: Drums
Background: Kaine were originally due to play with AJ Kemp of Dismanibus fame on Lead Guitar alongside Josh Moreton and Dan Mailer on bass as a special one of show playing songs from the original album. However, Dan was diagnosed with carpel tunnel syndrome (he and Josh were playing with Elimination at that time and on the same night for the bands 10-year celebrations) so had to drop out. Stephen Ellis was then drafted in to play bass, alongside Anthony Murch to play a set comprising of material from the first three albums. It was the first time Josh had performed with the band since 2012 and Anthony, which was 2015.
May 4th, 2018 – Voodoo Lounge, Stamford
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Saxon Davids: Lead Guitars and backing vocals Stephen Ellis: Bass Liam Etheridge: Drums Chris MacKinnon: Vocals
Background: Chris joined the band on stage for Frailty of the Blade on vocals, the second time he had performed solo as a vocalist for the band the first being when he joined Dan Mailer to sing Iron Lady at the Asylum for A Crisis of Faith live. This would also be the last show played with Saxon and Stephen as official members of the band.
May 26th, 2018 – B2, Norwich
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Liam Etheridge: Drums Toby Woods: Lead Guitars Isaac Healy: Bass Dan Mailer: Vocals
Background: Dan Mailer joined the band on stage, coincidently for another new line-up debut at the B2 Norwich for Iron Lady during his tenure as the lead singer of lone time Kaine friends and collaborators Osmium Guillotine.
July 7th, 2018 – B2, Norwich
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Liam Etheridge: Drums Toby Woods: Lead Guitars Isaac Healy: Bass Ant Murch: Lead Guitars and Backing Vocals
Background: Ant Murch joined Kaine on stage to play an encore of songs from The Waystone and A Crisis of Faith eras including a solo trade off with Toby Woods.
August 11th, 2018 – Scruffy Murphy’s, Birmingham
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Liam Etheridge: Drums Toby Woods: Lead Guitars Isaac Healy: Bass Dan Mailer: Vocals
Background: Dan Mailer again joined the band on stage for a rendition of Iron Lady with the Reforge The Steel line-up.
September 14th, 2018 – The Cavern CM7, Braintree
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Chris MacKinnon: Drums/Vocals Toby Woods: Lead Guitars Isaac Healy: Bass Saxon Davids: Lead Guitars and Backing Vocals Dan Mailer: Vocals Stephen Ellis: Bass
Background: Liam Etheridge was unable to perform at this show (which was Osmium Guillotine’s album launch) so Chris MacKinnon covered on the drums, Saxon Davids joined as an additional guitarist for a set which was a mixture of Crisis of Faith and The Waystone material which also featured Dan Mailer again on guest vocals for the Iron Lady and Stephen Ellis joined the band for the encore which was The Mind is Willing, the penultimate time that song would be played and that line-up would play together.
December 22nd, 2018 – Scruffy Murphy’s, Birmingham
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Liam Etheridge: Drums Toby Woods: Lead Guitars Isaac Healy: Bass Saxon Davids: Lead Guitars and Backing Vocals
Background: Saxon Davids joined Kaine on stage for several songs from the A Crisis of Faith album.
April 27th, 2019 – Arts Centre, Colchester
Rage Sadler: Vocals/Rhythm Guitars Chris MacKinnon: Drums/Vocals Saxon Davids: Lead Guitars and backing vocals Stephen Ellis: Bass
Background: After the Reforge The Steel line-up performed, the A Crisis of Faith line up closed the night as that line-ups final gig to celebrate the first 10 years of the band. A double album was recorded and released featuring both sets.
To mark 5 years of The Waystone album we’ve done our first official patch to accompany the new Waystone EP which will be recorded later this year.
This patch is high quality, full colour and features the original “Evil Eyes” t-shirt design. Each patch comes with a free download of The Waystone album. Limited to just 50. Members get 10% off all orders.
Yesterday I wrote about how the album was promoted and how it performed in terms of sales. Today I thought I’d take a look back on the background of the album and how it was written.
The album has its origins in August 2015 when a year after The Waystone, Dan Mailer (bass and vocals) decided to move on from the band and we recruited Drop Dead Fred bassist Stevo Ellis to join the band. At this point in time the band was still a five piece and we had been writing music for a follow up album to the Waystone, we released one of tracks as a single as a taster for the new record which was Justice, Injustice however when Dan left the band this was all scrapped. We remained as a five piece until the end of 2015 and in that period, we had brought Voice in Hell into the live set, as well as started to write songs such as Afterlife, Fall of Jericho and A Night Meets Death. I had written Voice in Hell, Chris had written Afterlife and Fall of Jericho and A Night Meets Death were Stevo’s work. We had taken most of January off to begin writing the next album in full when Anthony decided to leave the band also for personal reasons.
Going into 2016 we decided to remain as a four piece and to work solely on new material, which is what we did for the next year and a bit. We put hours into rehearse and refine every little detail of everything we wrote because we knew how important this release would be for us, being our third album and it being a brand-new line-up. Much of the rehearsals were done at Pioneer Music in Colchester, with some also work being done at Unit One.
We demoed the songs, would practice the songs, play them live, alter and so on until we were happy. Saxon brought the song Heaven’s Abandonment to the table, while Stevo added to it with the intro, Chris wrote Afterlife and The Mind is Willing, which saw him perform lead vocals for both for the first time. Stevo wrote A Night Meets Death with Saxons input, Fall of Jericho and of course “Stephens Song” which was a n old Drop Dead Fred song which Stevo and Chris had done in that band together before being ejected from that band, which we turned into Frailty of the Blade. My contributions were Voice in Hell, Crisis of Faith, Alone, Behind the Preacher’s Eyes. I wrote all the lyrics bar those for Afterlife and The Mind is Willing, however Stevo helped me with some of the melodies for A Night Meets Death. Of course, we all had a degree of input on all of the material written but the original ideas came from essentially one of us having the bulk of an idea and taking it to the band and working it from there.
The ambition really was to write the best album we could and try and push it to the moon and back once it was released, and try and improve upon what had happened in the past, we gave ourselves the time to write and flesh ideas out whereas on The Waystone we were pressured by a label to do things much quicker than we would have liked.
Rolling into 2017 we were ready to record the album, having already played all of it live as heard on our A Crisis of Faith Live album, which was recorded before the album was even released. In terms of finding somewhere to record, Stevo had performed bass on the Twisted Illusion album Insight to a Mind with a Million Faces album and had recorded at Pointy Halo with Carl Brewer based out of Red Wall Studios in Greater Manchester and suggested we use him. We listened to his work and agreed that he would be ideal for the new release, in order to give us a much more modern sound to fit the new band as well as move away from being stuck in that old school bracket production wise, as well as musically speaking we wanted to move away from more of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal influenced stuff and stamp our own sound on the album as much as we could while keeping true to our music roots and I think we did deliver that, and given much of the NWOTM online scene loathed the album, the evidence was clear we had achieved that distance.
We recorded over the course of several months in 2017 after demoing the album in full, we did release the demos as a special one-off Ghost Edition which sold out in under an hour. Once in the studio and after the bulk of the recording had been done we spent a lot of time mixing it with Carl and Sheldon, adding in orchestral elements, making a lot of effort to ensure the vocals were strong, that the instruments sounded to as we wanted which is why we didn’t release the album until February of 2018, because we really spent the time on it. Chris in particular took a lead role in all of this, putting those elements together as well as the orchestrations, hidden tracks and even the track listing.
Ultimately the release was a team effort and I really hope this shows throughout the album.
So, it’s been exactly one year since the release of our last album A Crisis of Faith, it’s been a very challenging year, from line-up changes to continuing to push the album as hard as I can using my own personal budget, and of course the bands gigs to try and promote the album.
When we released the album, we sent it out by e-mail to over 8000 people, friends, family, fans, industry contacts, everyone we could. Unfortunately, the response rate to those contacts were pretty poor, I think less than 20% of those people we sent to the e-mail to actually opened and read it and even less checked out the album! We of course pushed it hard through Facebook, but social media like e-mail is getting harder and harder to get people to both see and then interact with you on. We followed up the e-mail with a press pack to record labels, festivals, management, whoever we could think of and it was sadly rejected by all we contacted but we did our best to push it as hard as we could.
Reviews wise, most seemed to enjoy the album with only a couple of bad reviews out of them all, but the album didn’t feature in any major outlets top ten lists or essential Metal albums and the feedback on the album dissipated fairly quickly this time, whereas the Waystone which got panned much harder seemed to rumble on for a lot longer. We tried a music video for the album, after contemplating it for years which got a couple of thousand views, but it didn’t prove to be a very successful outlet to market our music as again, trying to convince people to try and watch the video was a real challenge for us as it either wasn’t seen when we promoted it, or ignored.
In terms of playing gigs to support the release, we booked 41 shows, many of which were self-promoted in the hope that those who attended the nights would also buy the album. These went broadly well with only a few bad ones now and again. The main difference between A Crisis of Faith and The Waystone is that more people bought that album on the gigs to begin with than A Crisis of Faith, but overall the initial release of A Crisis of Faith performed stronger online, however it picked up towards the end of the year. In terms of Spotify, we’re still struggling for plays there so we typically don’t focus on it. We did try and encourage digital sales by offering them for just £3 too. We offered packages which included t-shirts, vinyl’s and everything we could do.
I have been criticized in the past about writing about how well or how badly our albums and tours have done, one being was when I wrote about the Waystone which caused a lot of the local music scene to engage with a lot of slagging off and insulting of the band, in particular myself, but I am not one to hide from this sort of thing, these things are what they are and I am not going to pretend to be a successful musician just to appear bigger than I am online.
So how do the stats look a year on from release? • Steaming/Downloads – 31,356 = £441.06 • Physical Sales (CD, Vinyl etc.) – 434 = £6,338.03
So that’s where we are after exactly one years, naturally this isn’t pure profit as the costs of the recording, printing CD’s, pressing, marketing and everything else. As you can see the amount of streaming massively outweighs the sales, but it pays so little in return that despite the fact we have been downloaded and streamed over 30 thousand times, that’s only paying £0.0140662074244164p per play. It’s another challenge with more people moving to streaming such as Spotify, YouTube, and everything else and less people even owning the means to play a CD or vinyl for a band our size to rely on streaming to fund albums. This is the future and in 10 years’ time the whole landscape will have changed entirely again with more people streaming albums, rather than buying. At least in America there have been moves to improve the situation in terms of artists being paid fairer for streaming but no one has taken up the mantle in the U.K. as of yet to push for a bigger share of the income. We’ve also seen HMV go into administration after losing something like 80% of their physical DVD/CD sales in just a year which gives you further indication of how the game is changing.
I have been told that many do find the insight helpful. It’s a sign of the times when a band has tens of thousands of streams, over 11 thousand social media follows and whatnot and the real strength in terms of income is still gigs and physicals such as CD, as they were ten years ago, without those physical sales we wouldn’t have even made £500 on the album.
I’d say overall what we have achieved with this album has been successful for a band our size although our critics will point to the fact we’re now 10 years old and are still at this level. Naturally we’d liked to have done better with it (as anyone would) but relying on your own budget to promote and gig you can only afford to do so much between affording to live, but we worked hard (that is both line-ups) and the response overall was positive so I don’t have any complaints. The album has proven popular enough it’s being re-released in Europe by Underground Power Records and I hope it is really successful there so we can emulate the likes of Toledo Steel, Seven Sisters and Midnight Force on the continent and hopefully do more that side of the sea moving forward.
As ever thanks for reading and to those who supported the band by buying the album I truly appreciate the support.
With every ticket purchase for our Colchester Arts Centre show in 2019, you get a CD, Shirt, Poster plus more to be announced with every ticket where can be ordered here.
Kaine will be supported by A Bribe for The Ferryman and Osmium Guillotine, and will feature guest appearances from founding members as well as the A Crisis of Faith line-up.
Rage Sadler, Chris MacKinnon, Saxon Davids and Stephen Ellis will perform together for one last time at next years Anniversary show at the Arts Centre in Colchester.
The band, who were the Kaine line-up from 2016 to early 2018, recorded the bands most recent album A Crisis of Faith and were a very popular live act that many were sad to see split up. It was also the line-up who played in front of a sold-out Birmingham o2 in February. The band performed together briefly at Osmium Guillotines album launch show in September playing The Mind Is Willing.
The line-up will perform a selection of songs from A Crisis of Faith. If you wish to see the final ever performance of this line-up, please purchase a ticket by clicking here.
