Featured Local: Greater Is He

Posted: June 1, 2015 | | Comments are off for this post.

Greater Is He is a 5-piece Christian metal band hailing from Richmond, Virginia. The purpose of the band is pretty self-explanatory: to uplift the name of Jesus. Nathan explains, “The ministry aspect of GIH is the most important and we take it very seriously so that we can be as effective as we can when it comes to being a light in the dark.”

Greater Is He technically started when a few Christian metal heads were ready to take the next step from band to ministry. The band originally consisted of Noah Sheaffer (guitar), Nathan Gascon (vocals), and Parker Lawton (drums), who met at high school. “Back then, we weren’t trying to be a ministry or accomplish much. We just wanted to write metal and be Christians. We went through a long hiatus, but we wrote a ton of new music.

The band’s sound has evolved throughout the years, from thrash metal to metalcore. They draw influence from bands including August Burns Red, The Devil Wears Prada, and Oh, Sleeper as well as progressive metal and melodic hardcore bands such as Silent Planet, ERRA, Periphery, The Ghost Inside, and Gideon.

In April, Greater Is He released their first EP, Retrace. You can stream it for free on the band’s YouTube channel.

“We support Syke in their mission to free the music scene of smoking and thank them greatly for giving us the opportunity to show the world on a larger scale who we are. We are privileged to be a part of the RVA metal scene and desire to reach out to even further places. Playing music has always been a passion for all of us and it is exciting to express our hearts in songs for people to hear.”