Sworn Vengeance (band)

Early Career (1998–2003)

Sworn Vengeance was founded by Brian Baumgartner, brothers Adam and Ryan Encinas, Marc Fortner and Nate Olsen in 1998 from the ashes of the San Francisco Bay Area hardcore band Downshift. While Downshift had some elements of late 80’s youth crew hardcore bands due to all the members being straight edge, Sworn Vengeance wanted their music to be a much heavier sound with stronger influences of the metal they all grew up listening to. Their first show was in 1998 at the Maritime Hall in San Francisco with Hatebreed. After a Northwest tour in July, Adam left the band for personal reasons and Bob Hookey stepped in as their new bassist.

In September 1998, Sworn Vengeance entered the studio to record an 8-song demo CD entitled “My Friend Violence”. The tracks interested Mike Mraz of the Hoods, who contacted the band about releasing the first album on his new label, Westcoast Worldwide. In January 1999, a week before recording, Nate decided to step down as guitarist. The band continued as a four piece and record a 10 track CD for Westcoast Worldwide entitled “Abbadon." Even heavier and faster than before, the material took the band to a whole new level of sound, as well as exposure thanks to Mike Mraz’s networking within the hardcore underground.

Taking some tracks off their “My Friend Violence” demo, Sworn Vengeance contributed to a split 7" with All Bets Off. Also released at that time was a 7" of the Nineteen Ninety Hate demo (original recorded as Downshift) on Back ta Basics (Rick Healy from 25 ta Life's label). With these releases plus 2 new songs on the first Westcoast Worldwide compilation, crowds at shows began to grow bigger.

Soon after, Bob stepped down to take care of personal matters and Brian, Marc and Ryan auditioned new people. The band picked up Dan Coddaire on second guitarist and Carl Schwartz on bass. While playing countless shows throughout the Bay Area, Sworn Vengeance hit the studio again and recorded “Domination” at the end of 1999 for Breakout Records. International attention grew with this release and helped them establish themselves as one of the heaviest hardcore bands from California.

A few months after “Domination” was released, Dan left and the band continued as a four piece, touring both the West Coast and East Coast of the United States, playing with bands like Hatebreed, Shadows Fall, Buried Alive, Vision of Disorder, Snapcase, Glassjaw, Sworn Enemy, One King Down, Cave In, Redemption 87, Animosity, Punishment, Blessing The Hogs, NJ Bloodline, 25 ta Life, Hoods, Clear, Unconquered, Eighteen Visions, Dysphoria, Over My Dead Body, Papa Roach and Bleeding Through, among many others. Sworn Vengeance was also asked to perform and be interviewed for an Australian documentary on music, with an audience of 6,000,000 people.

Due to personal and band related disagreements, Marc was asked to step down and Sworn Vengeance picked up Tony Barbier on drums and Doug Weber on second guitar. Their sound took a new turn with the addition of these members, as the band felt that they had finally achieved a cohesive unit with everyone on the same page. Sworn Vengeance started writing heavier material with a new twist within their genre – adding harmonies to the riffs. Currently an overdone effect, at the time there were very few, if any, bands in hardcore that were merging harmonies with the much more aggressive and heavier sound that Sworn Vengeance was known for.

in 2001, Too Damn Hype Records approached Sworn Vengeance to record their next full length. The band started to record a series of songs, most for the album and some for some splits and comps that were offered. But a lot of personal and internal pressures were starting to weigh on some of the members, and on the eve of playing a handful of California shows with Hatebreed in March 2002, Sworn Vengeance disbanded. They briefly reunited in 2003 for two shows to honor their friend Donald Perrot and his girlfriend, who were killed in a car accident (Ryan Wilson and Neil Dhawan, friends of the band, handled bass and guitar duties for these shows). In 2003, the band chose to digitally release the unmastered material they were recording at no cost to their fans. Labeled “The Outstretched Arms of Damnation,” this material consisted of the songs set for their Too Damn Hype Records release, as well as various splits and compilation albums they were preparing material for.

Reunions and Reformation (2007, 2010, 2011-current)

Carl and Doug went on to form the band First Blood and play in the band Terror while the rest of the band focused on their education and careers. In October 2007, Brian, Ryan and Tony got together with original bassist Adam and long time friend and music collaborator Neil Dhawan and played a reunion show in Reno, Nevada. Around this time, the band got some unintentional notoriety due to an article in Entertainment Weekly when they were randomly mentioned due to Brian having the same name as an actor on the NBC television show "The Office." In November 2010, Brian, Ryan, Neil, and Tony got back together and played another reunion show and started discussing re-forming Sworn Vengeance. The band added Jon Frost of At Our Heels and Light This City to join them on bass and added Keith Welch of Murder Practice, At Our Heels, and Glacier Eater as 3rd guitarist.

In July and October 2013, the band stepped into Castle Ultimate Studio in Oakland to record material for a brand new 10 track full length entitled "...And With This Hammer Of Vengeance", which released in early 2014 on vinyl on Escapist Records in the US and on CD in Europe through Goodlife Recordings. Sworn Vengeance has headlined two tours of Mexico (2014 and 2015), as well as played numerous shows and festivals with bands like Sick of It All, Twitching Tongues, Earth Crisis, Lionheart, Sworn Enemy, The Old Firm Casuals, World of Pain, Conducting from the Grave, Hoods, Downpresser, Drowning, Havenside, Dysphoria, and many more.

Currently, SV is getting ready for a European tour in summer 2016 and a South America tour in early 2017. The band will also be writing new material at the end of 2016 for a mid year release in 2017. Sworn Vengeance has also been talking about mixing and mastering the Outstretched Arms of Damnation recordings for a possible late 2016 release.

Current lineup

Former members