I Killed the Prom Queen

I Killed the Prom Queen
I Killed the Prom Queen
Origin	Adelaide, SA
Genres	Metalcore
Years active	2000 - 2008, 2011 - present
Labels	Resist, Metal Blade, Stomp, Final Prayer
Associated acts	Bring Me the Horizon, Bleeding Through, The Red Shore, Confession, In Trenches, Deez Nuts, The Hot Lies, The Hunt for Ida Wave, Carpathian, Eternal Lord, Voices, Bury Your Dead, Buried in Verona
Members	Kevin Cameron, Jamie Hope, Sean Kennedy, Chris Mellross, Jona Weinhofen
Past members	JJ Peters, Ed Butcher, Michael Crafter, Ben Engels, Simon O'Gorman, Leaton Rose, Lee Stacy

Band Members

Line-Up
- Kevin Cameron (guitar)
- Jamie Hope (vocals)
- Sean Kennedy (bass)
- Chris Mellross (drums)
- Jona Weinhofen (guitar, vocals)

Former Members
- JJ Peters (drums) 2000 - 2008, 2011 - 2013
- Michael Crafter (vocals) 2001 - 2006, 2008
- Ed Butcher (vocals) 2006 - 2007
- Lee Stacy (vocals) 2000 - 2003
- Leaton Rose (bass) 2001 - 2002
- Simon O'Gorman (guitar) 2000 - 2002
- Ben Engels (bass) 2000 - 2001

Formed

Adelaide, SA, 2000

Band Information

I Killed the Prom Queen is an Adelaide metalcore band that formed in 2000, originally by Weinhofen and Peters with Ben Engel on bass, Simon O'Gorman on guitar and Lee Stacey on vocals. In 2001, Crafter joined as second vocalist and Engel departed in favour of Leaton Rose. The band quickly came to the fore of the Adelaide hardcore scene with the demo "Choose to Love, Live or Die" but after this release Stacey, Rose and O'Gorman all left, with Kennedy and Cameron then joining. Final Prayer later re-released the demo as an EP. IKTPQ 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. Rose went on to join The Hot Lies.

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 and drew a hostile reception. 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 Rossn from Gold Coast act Mourning Tide for dates in Japan. Colin Jeffs of Heaven's Lost 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. Peters began a solo career under the name Deez Nuts, performing a cross of hardcore and rap.

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 began its final tour on May 22 with national support from Bring Me the Horizon, plus The Red Shore and Ghost Inside from the US. A special edition of Music for the Recently Deceased was released to co-incide with the tour that featured live tracks and the original demo versions featuring Crafter's vocals.

Michael Crafter is now with Confession, Sean Kennedy went to Voices and Kevin Cameron joined In Trenches. Weinhofen joined Bring Me the Horizon in 2009 and claimed during the year that IKTPQ had not officially disbanded but were on extended hiatus. The band reformed in early 2011 with Jamie Hope from The Red Shore on vocals. A national tour with The Amity Affliction took place in May. They featured on the Sonisphere bill in the UK in 2012 and in December toured nationally with Parkway Drive. At the end of the tour, JJ Peters left the band to concentrate on Deez Nuts and was replaced by Buried in Verona's Chris Mellross. Late in 2013 the band revealed a worldwide deal with Epitaph Records for a third album in 2014; another national tour followed the announcement.