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Grade | |
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| Origin | Burlington, Ontario, Canada |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1994–2002 2009-present |
| Label | Victory Records = Second Nature Recordings |
| Spinoffs | Acrid, The Swarm, Jersey, To The Lions |
| Members | Kyle Bishop Matt Jones Shawn Magill Greg Taylor Matt Richmond |
| Past members | Kevin Harris Chris Danner Charles Moniz Brad Casarin Silas Barrette Kent Abbott |
Grade is a hardcore punk band from Burlington, Ontario, often credited as pioneers in blending metallic hardcore with the rawness and emotion of emo, and - most notably - the alternating screaming/singing style later popularized by bands like Taking Back Sunday and Thursday. Formed in 1994, Grade found inspiration in the hardcore bands Integrity and Chokehold. By 1995, however, they had discovered Indian Summer and Rye Coalition and began developing the sound and style for which they had become known.
Four of the members of Grade previously played in the band Incision, with a different bassist, from 1992 to 1993, releasing two demo tapes. In late 1993, the band briefly broke up but reformed under the name Rebirth. After only two shows, Rebirth recruited bassist Matt Jones (who was then also playing in the band Sun Still Burns) and changed name to Grade in January 1994. The name was chosen in reference to Lincoln's song "Grade Curve". Grade released their debut three-song demo tape in February 1994 through Workshop Records.
Though And Such Is Progress would eventually be hailed as a "landmark album," it was not until 1997, when Grade released Separate the Magnets and toured with Hot Water Music, that they began to develop a following. During this time, band members collaborated in several side-projects. Bishop played in Acrid; Jones played in SeventyEightDays; Bishop and Jones played in The Swarm aka Knee Deep in the Dead; and Bishop played in Tomb of the Worm; Taylor and Harris played in Jersey.
In 1999, Grade signed with Victory Records and released Under the Radar, the album for which they had become best known. Under the Radar spawned two singles, the videos for which received some play on MTV2 in 1999 and 2000. In 2000, the band toured Europe and the United Kingdom, meeting up with American melodic hardcore band As Friends Rust for several cross-over shows.
In 2001, Grade released their fourth and final full-length album, Headfirst Straight to Hell, before disbanding approximately one year later. Jones, Magill, Danner and Casarin all went on to play in To the Lions.
Since their break-up, Grade have reunited several times, beginning with a 2006 show in Toronto. In 2010, they wrote and recorded two new songs for a split 7-inch with Bane. In 2013, Grade performed at Pouzza Fest in Montreal. In 2014, they toured the northeastern U.S. with Ensign.
On Grade's earliest releases their influences were Integrity and Chokehold. On ...And Such is Progress (1995), they embraced the influence of Indian Summer, Rye Coalition and Lincoln. In a 2026 interview, Greg Taylor said of this time "because of what we were doing and the music and bands that we were playing with kind of just influenced us to change", noting examples as performances alongside the Get Up Kids, Braid, Coalesce and Hot Water Music as well as the emo and screamo bands on Ebullition Records. On Under the Radar (1999), they took influence from Lifetime, Hot Water Music and Dillinger Four. In 2002, Kyle Bishop cited the Haunted, In Flames, Cradle of Filth, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, Motley Crüe, Ramones, Hüsker Dü, the Smiths and Jeff Buckley.
When asked by Noisey in 2014 if he ever felt bitter for a lack of recognition, singer Kyle Bishop stated, "There's a lot of accolades that people give us for supposedly starting something and I think that's all bullshit, to be honest with you. I think that a billion bands were doing similar things before us and after that deserve just as much credit. And if we do get some credit from certain people, awesome. If we don't, it doesn't really matter because I really don't think it's true anyway."
They have been cited as an influence by Atreyu, Senses Fail, Silverstein, the Used and Boys Night Out.
Grade from little Burlington, Ontario, were the first ones to do screamo. That caused a seismic shift in music. Nobody knows who Grade is.
Grade, a band credited with taking the emo genre of aggressive music and transforming it into screamo
They were called Lincoln. I think they were I think they were a DC band. Anyways, they were actually a huge influence on Grade. They had a song called "Grade Curve". The name just stuck out and that's how we became Grade
Are you familiar with like Ebullition Records records? Basically I'm going to say this is where like the heart of the emo screamo stuff started... The music that we were listening to changed significantly... Because of what we were doing and the music and bands that we were playing with kind of just influenced us to change and the shows around that time were very eclectic and very strange. Even like a lot of the festivals, I have a lot of tour passes that have really eclectic like bands. It'll be like Grade and Coalesce playing with Hot Water Hot Water Music and Braid and the Get Up Kids.
I can't speak directly to what his [Kyle Bishop] main influences were at the time. I know like collectively as a band like we loved at that time Hot Water, Dillinger Four, Lifetime, all those bands.
I met Garrett online on a message board he would put up that he wanted a guitar player who was influenced by these bands... Grade and Gray Area and Thursday and Saves the Day and stuff like that.
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