Bad Wolves is an American heavy metal band formed in 2017. Initially finding fame from their first single, a cover of the Cranberries' 1994 hit "Zombie", the band proceeded to find further success with a number of songs topping the Billboard Mainstream Rock songs chart, including "Remember When", "Killing Me Slowly", and "Sober". The band has released three studio albums, Disobey (2018), N.A.T.I.O.N. (2019) and Dear Monsters (2021). In January 2021, original lead vocalist Tommy Vext left the band and was replaced by Daniel "DL" Laskiewicz. Tensions ensued between Vext and the band, resulting in legal proceedings including Better Noise Music.
History
Formation and Disobey (2017–2019) In July 2014, Boecklin started writing the music that would become the band's debut album and during 2016 entered AudioHammer Studios in Sanford, Florida, with producer Mark Lewis.
Bad Wolves was founded in 2017 by drummer John Boecklin (ex-DevilDriver), vocalist Tommy Vext (ex-Divine Heresy, ex-Westfield Massacre), lead guitarist Doc Coyle (ex-God Forbid), rhythm guitarist Chris Cain (ex-Bury Your Dead, ex-For the Fallen Dreams), and bassist Kyle Konkiel (ex-In This Moment, ex-Scar the Martyr, Vimic). They are managed by Zoltan Bathory of Five Finger Death Punch. The band announced that they would release their debut studio album, Disobey, on May 11, 2018. Of the thirteen songs in Disobey, ten were written and recorded before Vext joined the band.
In May 2017, Bad Wolves released their debut single, "Learn to Live". In November 2017, Bad Wolves released their second single, "Toast to the Ghost". On Christmas Eve 2017, the Cranberries' singer Dolores O'Riordan left a text message to her friend, Managing Director of E7LG-Europe, Dan Waite, where she offered to "sing on it", on the cover of "Zombie" that Waite had previously given her to listen to and accredit.
On January 15, 2018, O'Riordan — who was in London for a recording session for her side project's second album, left a voice message to Waite during that night, where she asked him to come in the studio later that morning, and to listen to her vocals on the cover of Bad Wolves. O'Riordan died prior to recording it. On January 18, 2018, they released a third single, which was the cover of "Zombie" (originally by the Cranberries), which charted on multiple Billboard charts. The song peaked at number 23 on the Billboard 200, and reached number 9 in Australia. It topped the US Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. A music video was released on February 22. The band toured with Five Finger Death Punch, Shinedown, Breaking Benjamin, and Starset in the first half of 2018. In October 2018, the band launched a crowdfunding campaign to create a documentary about their formation and rise to fame. The film would be called "Breaking the Band". By the end of the campaign, they had raised under $15,000 of their $65,000 target. Despite this, the band received all the donated money and still intend to create something for the project.
Since their inception, the band has shared the stage with the likes of Five Finger Death Punch, Nickelback, Shinedown, Breaking Benjamin, Papa Roach and Nothing More. They also had their cover of "Zombie" nominated for the iHeartRadio's Rock Song of the Year.
N.A.T.I.O.N. and departure of Tommy Vext (2019–2021)
On July 26, 2019, the band released a new single titled "I'll Be There", followed by another single titled "Killing Me Slowly", a third single titled "Sober", as well as a fourth single titled "Crying Game" and announced their new album, N.A.T.I.O.N., which was released on October 25, 2019. "Killing Me Slowly" was a song written in collaboration with outside songwriters; however, Vext would later state publicly that he was "the mastermind behind the song" after changing a few lyrics.
Two unreleased singles were released on April 10 on Patreon. The two singles include a cover of "Heart Shaped Box" by Nirvana and a new song called "Shanghai".
In an interview in October 2020, vocalist Vext confirmed that the band had almost completed their third full-length album and that they may release it six months early exclusively via Patreon.