Absent From The Body

Forming in 2015, Absent From The Body is a groove/thrash metal band out of Knoxville, Tennessee. You would not know it now from the sound of the American Thrash/Groove based Christian Heavy Metal band but this band formed out of a Christian Rock group named Rendered. Guitarist Steve Murphy had asked Jason McMahan to join Rendered after they had talked things over at a local pawn shop, McMahan was reluctant as he had played Christian heavy/death metal for well over a decade in a band called Awake The Suffering and just did not want to play metal after. McMahan thought it over and since it was more of a rock style, he joined. McMahan then asked former Awake The Suffering bassist, Richard Tallent, to join on guitar and McMahan would play bass as it fit better for the band.
Rendered then picked up Alex Collins on drums and the group was solid. After a couple of singers in Rendered... McMahan, Murphy, Tallent, and Collins still went to the same church and decided to continue playing music together, but they noticed they started writing heavy songs and needed a Vocalist. McMahan had done vocal duties years ago in Awake The Suffering and decided to get behind the mic and see if it would work and if the guys would approve. Enter the realm of heaviness.....
The band had a new ferocious sound and the riffs were getting more metal edged and the fire that was once gone came back stronger than ever, but they needed a name, a name to describe the metal approach they now have. Steve Murphy suggested "Absent From The Body" and it was settled. Absent From The Body would now go into the studio to record their first single "Destroy These Walls" to let everyone know who they were. Not long after the mutual agreement for drummer Alex Collins to step down from drumming duties was agreed.
Now without a drummer, Absent From The Body would face uncertainty. The three remaining members asked longtime friend Michael Young if he was interested and after one audition, it was settled. The band had complete clarity of the style and direction of the music. AFTB would now go on to play an impressive amount of shows before getting their big break in the Summer of 2017 as they were asked to open The Summer Slaughter Tour in Knoxville. As the band sharpened their skills on stage, opening for The Black Dahlia Murder, Origin, The Faceless, Oceano, Betraying the Martyr, Soulfly, Nile, and Motograter, just to name a few, this band DELIVERED as Metal Assault.com put it.
After a long stint of shows, AFTB would now record their debut album "The Wars We Wage" and catch interest to the independent record label, Warfront Records. AFTB would go on to release their debut album on Warfront Records in February of 2018. The album artwork looks like the Apocalypse and the intro "Bring The End" is a sounds of what the end may sound like. The album has style and influences from Living Sacrifice, Machine Head, Metallica, Pantera, War of Ages and Hatebreed. To finish off the album, you have a very stripped down acoustic guitar playing from 82nd Airborne Steve Murphy as he plays out the song "Rest Weary Soldier" thinking back, not only to physical war but spiritual war as well.

R.I.P. Jason McMahan: October 14, 1977 - March 27, 2021