Unlocking the Truth was an American heavy metal band from Brooklyn, New York. Formed in 2007, the group consisted of Malcolm Brickhouse, Jarad Dawkins, and Alec Atkins.
History
Founding members Malcolm Brickhouse and Jarad Dawkins met each other at a birthday party in 2005. Sharing similar tastes in music, they decided to create a band. They felt their band needed a bassist but none of their friends were musicians. So they taught their pre-school friend, Alec Atkins, how to play the bass guitar from scratch. Their street performances in Times Square and around New York City led to people recording and uploading videos of them to YouTube and social media. The trio have since appeared on national television, including NBC's The Tonight Show, ABC's The View, CNN, Fuse, BET, and Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report. In 2014, they were the youngest group to perform at Coachella. They’ve performed at the Afropunk Festival, SXSW, and were the youngest band to play at the 2014 Vans Warped Tour. They have also performed at the music festivalsHeavy Montréal and Bonnaroo. The group have supported Guns N' Roses, Motörhead, Queens of the Stone Age, Living Colour, and Marilyn Manson, while also appearing in commercials for Airheads, AT&T, Beats by Dr. Dre, Maybelline and Verizon. The band has been featured in Spin, Revolver, Guitar World, Rolling Stone, New York Daily News, Village Voice, New York Post, New York and Los Angeles TimesThe Huffington Post, Loudwire and Guitar World, all while attending middle school and now high school. In 2014, the band signed a $1.8 million contract for five albums with Sony Music Entertainment. Due to the age of the members of the band, the contract had to be approved through the New York Supreme Court. In 2015, the band successfully negotiated their release from the contract with the label. In April 2016, the band announced the release of their full-length debut album, Chaos. The album was released on June 17, 2016 via TuneCore. A feature-length documentary film about the band, entitled Breaking a Monster, was released in the Northern Hemisphere in the summer of 2016. On April 27, Loudwire premiered their first video "Take Control". They released two singles, "My Chains" and "Come Closer". In January 2020, it was announced the band had dissolved and frontman Malcolm Brickhouse would be ensuing a solo career under the moniker Malxolm Brixkhouse.
Style and influences
Unlocking the Truth's sound has been described as "a salute to old-school metal that also blends modern influences." In the Los Angeles Times, Randall Roberts wrote of their Coachella performance as "a hard, distorted blend of metal, speed punk and alternative rock on the main stage, they were as well-practiced as units three times their age." Artist Direct says "they are the future of music." The band has cited influences such as Metallica, Slipknot, Disturbed, Living Colour, Escape the Fate, Chelsea Grin, and Motionless in White.
