From MySpace to Red Rocks: Fit For A King on the surprising rise of metalcore

If you’re a metalcore fan who just woke up from a coma, you’d be forgiven if you still think it’s 2008. MySpace is relaunching, Bring Me The Horizon is playing deathcore again and the skinny jeans-loving millennial genre known for sing-song harsh vocals and brutal breakdowns is as big as ever.  

So much so that Motionless In White, Fit For A King, Lorna Shore and Static Dress are heading to Red Rocks Amphitheatre for the first, in our estimation, metalcore show in the iconic venue’s history on Sunday, Aug. 9.  

Ryan Kirby, Fit For A King’s longtime vocalist, recalls those digital salad days, when the most popular bands online would be stoked to headline any 1,000-capacity club. “MySpace was so huge for us. Fit For A King started as a MySpace band, then we had to make the switch over to Facebook,” he quips about the group’s beginnings back in 2007.  

“I remember 15 years ago, we toured with August Burns Red, and we were playing a bunch of House of Blues, Summit Music Hall-type of venues,” continues Kirby, who officially joined the Texas crew in 2010. “I was watching ABR headlining those, selling out every night, and was like, ‘I want that so bad.’ Now we’ve surpassed that. Even ABR will play Fillmore, but even playing Fillmore is so crazy.”  

Fit For A King — which currently consists of guitarists Bobby Lynge and Daniel Gailey, bassist Ryan “Tuck” O’Leary and drummer Trey Celaya — have always stayed the course, dropping banger after banger album, including most-recent release, last year’s “Lonely God.” In anticipation of the upcoming deluxe edition of the eighth studio record, the band shared new single, “Blood Pact,” in June.  

“It’s about how the decisions of people in power affect the rest of us,” Kirby says of the latest song. “And how, as a human race, we face the reality of destruction, even when it’s not the majority making the decision.” 

He admits his songwriting has matured over the years.  

“I have a lot more deep thoughts than when I was a teenager. Back then it was just about playing shows and having a cool one-liner people can say,” the 35-year-old adds. “As I get older, politics is so much more of a hot-button issue in America. Now it’s cranked up to 10 at all times. I do write about some of that. It is a healthy outlet.” 

But as much as some things change, a lot has stayed the same. Given his and Fit For A King’s perspective as metalcore lifers, the ethos created during the MySpace era is still there, and it’s bringing in a new generation of fans.  

“It’s funny, looking back. Everything is in cycles. There was a period where it felt like metalcore was falling off, or there was no youth being injected into it,” explains Kirby, who also currently manages a handful of up-and-coming bands. “Now, we stuck around long enough to see young people come back to metalcore. Now we see young people all over the crowd and people with their parents.”  

He has a theory of why this style of music has so much staying power.  

“A lot of fans are in it for life with this kind of music. It’s emotionally driven,” he says. “There’s just a different connection in metal and hardcore.”  

Now there’s no question that metalcore is here to stay on the bigger stage, which a lot of fans have hoped for since high school. In that sense, it’s stronger than ever.  

“I don’t worry about it ever being a fad at all, which is cool, because people have such emotional connections to this music,” Kirby says. “It would be cool to have MySpace come back to embrace that new wave of youth and encourage kids to start bands again, which is already happening.  

“It’s almost like the scene keeps growing, and I keep having to reevaluate what even is the ceiling,” he concludes. “It’s cool to not know that anymore.”  

Fit For A King, with Motionless In White, Lorna Shore and Static Dress, 5:30 p.m. Sunday, August 9, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Pkwy., Morrison. Tickets are $68.