I Killed the Prom Queen

Band Members

• Final Line-Up
  • Kevin Cameron (guitar)
  • Michael Crafter (vocals)
  • Sean Kennedy (bass)
  • JJ Peters (drums)
  • Jona Weinhofen (guitar, vocals)

• Former Members
  • Ed Butcher (vocals) (2006 - 2007)
  • Lee Stacy (vocals) (2000 - 2003)
  • Leaton Rose (bass) (2000 - 2002)

Formed

Adelaide, SA, 2000

Band Information

I Killed the Prom Queen was an Adelaide metalcore band that formed in 2000, originally with Leaton Rose on bass and Lee Stacey on vocals. The band quickly came to the fore of the Adelaide hardcore scene with the 2002 EP "Choose to Love, Live or Die" and by 2003 with Kennedy in place of Rose and Crafter in for Stacey they had signed to Sydney hardcore label Resist and released a split EP with the similarly aligned Parkway Drive. When Goodbye Means Forever was released by Resist in January 2003, leading to a growing national awareness. The album was issued internationally in March 2004 by Eulogy Records.

Heavy touring and international appearances were followed in January 2005 by the group's next EP "Your Past Comes Back to Haunt You" that contained four re-worked older tracks and a Fall of Troy cover, plus one new song. By this time, IKTPQ had begun to adapt more metal stylings and along with Parkway Drive had become Australia's biggest heavy attractions. With their popularity increased, critics accused the band of being thoroughly generic and many hardened metal fans refused to accept them, a stance that continues to the present.

By late 2005 IKTPQ's next album was complete but before it was released, vocalist Crafter was fired. Ed Butcher from the British band The Hunt For Ida Wave with whom IKTPQ had toured in Europe was hired and went straight into the studio to rework the new album's songs. Produced by renown metal producer Fredrik Nordström, Music for the Recently Deceased featured a distinctly Swedish melodic approach. After appearing at the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival in the US, I Killed the Prom Queen toured Australia with The Haunted and Exodus, to a decidedly lukewarm response from the more traditional metal crowds. The band's year ended with a headlining appearance at Metal for the Brain, again, with some mixed reaction, although the band almost missed the date due to a transport problem and walked on stage almost directly after driving straight from a show in Queensland. Crafter meanwhile had joined Carpathian but his stay with that band was brief. In January 2007 he joined Bury Your Dead but left the following May.

2007 began for the band with the announcement that Butcher had quit to return to Britain. He has since joined Eternal Lord. His place was taken by Tyrone from Gold Coast act Mourning Tide for dates in Japan. Colin Jeffs stood in on vocals during a short European tour. Then in April 2007, I Killed the Prom Queen announced that they were disbanding due to an inability to locate a replacement for Butcher. Weinhofen's defection to US band Bleeding Through sealed the deal.

I Killed the Prom Queen announced a farewell tour in 2008 with Weinhofen and Crafter back in the line-up. In May 2008, Michael Crafter became a contestant on Big Brother, apparently with the intention of causing as much strife on the show as possible but was evicted after only three nights. The band begans its final tour on May 22 with national support from British band Bring Me the Horizon, plus The Red Shore and Ghost Inside from the US.

Discography

Albums:

	2006	Music for the Recently Deceased	Stomp
	2003	When Goodbye Means Forever	Resist
	2002	Choose to Live, Love or Die	Final Prayer

EP:

	2005	Your Past Comes Back to Haunt You	Resist

Split:

	2003	Split with Parkway Drive	Final Prayer