Thousand Below

About Thousand Below

Thousand Below came out of San Diego in 2015 with the kind of emotional metalcore that felt heavier than most bands were willing to go at the time. Vocalist James Deberg, guitarists Josh Thomas and Josh Billimoria, bassist Abe Gomez, and drummer Nick Steinhardt built their sound around breakdowns that actually hurt and clean vocals that didn't feel like a cheap contrast trick. They signed to Rise Records pretty quickly, which told you something about how ready people were for this approach.

Their 2017 debut The Love You Let Too Close established what they do best. Heavy Heart and Parasite became the songs everyone latched onto, probably because they managed to sound crushing and melodic without splitting the difference in that awkward way a lot of metalcore does. Deberg's voice carries most of the emotional weight, switching between screams that sound genuinely unhinged and clean sections that don't oversell the vulnerability. The album dealt with mental health and loss in ways that felt specific rather than vague, which matters when half the genre is singing about the same things.

They kept the momentum going with Gone in My Shadow in 2019. Disappear and The Last Breath showed they could write hooks that worked in both modes, heavy and not. Hell Finds You Everywhere leaned more into the progressive metal side of what they do, with tempo changes that felt purposeful rather than showy. The production got tighter without losing the rawness that made the first album work. By this point, they'd toured with bigger names like The Devil Wears Prada and Silverstein, playing to rooms that actually knew the words.

Then things got complicated. Lineup changes hit them during a period when every band was already struggling with pandemic uncertainty. They went quiet for longer than expected, which in 2020-2021 could mean anything from internal issues to just trying to figure out how to exist as a band when you can't play shows.

They came back in 2023 with new music that suggested they'd been rethinking some things. Goodbye was a bit of a reset, leaning harder into post-hardcore atmospherics and giving the progressive elements more room. Dead and Gone felt like a thesis statement for this version of the band, less concerned with genre expectations and more interested in whatever served the song. It's darker and weirder than their earlier work, which probably means they're done trying to fit into whatever metalcore is supposed to sound like now.

Currently, they're in that middle-tier space where they've built a dedicated following but aren't headlining arenas. They tour steadily, write songs that their fans actually care about, and seem more focused on longevity than momentum. For a band dealing with themes of grief and survival, that feels about right.

Their shows are tightly wound and precise without feeling cold. The crowd tends to be invested rather than wild, following the dynamics of each song. You'll see people actually listening, then going hard during the heavy sections. The band locks in tight.

Known for Goodbye, Heavy Heart, Parasite, Dead and Gone, The Last Breath

See Thousand Below Live