Inner Darkness 10 Years

• 1 The Optimist 02:58
• 2 Gravity 05:20
• 3 Rise 03:05
• 4 Speechless 03:25
• 5 I Remember 03:08
• 6 The Trench 04:14
• 7 The Optimist 02:58
• Total Runtime 25:08

Info for Inner Darkness

The “Inner Darkness” EP includes a version of “The Optimist” with guest vocals by Conquer Divide‘s Kia Taylor. When the Kia and 10 Years singer Jesse Hasek first met on Zoom, guitarist and producer Brian Vodinh said, “We talked about touring and recording and basically nerded out and hit it off really well. Then we mentioned the idea of a collaboration, which is where everything started.” Hasek adds, “We thought it would be fun to give it a new twist since it has been out there for a while. Kia’s name came up and I’ve always enjoyed female vocalists and I thought it would be especially cool to inject her voice into our style of music. She had the right vibe and a great attitude and she really went for it. It was a fun, painless process and it came out even better than I expected it to.”

“There was such a massive catalog of built-up material we went through — great demos that have everything on them except the vocals — that it was really hard to come up with the right songs that flowed together in the right way. There are a dozen other songs that are really strong and just need to be finished up, and we kept going back and forth, bouncing from one song to another for all eternity to try to figure out what to use. In the end, we used the ones Jesse felt the best about vocally, but there’s plenty of great stuff left to work with.” (Brian Vodinh)

Jesse Hasek, lead vocals
Brian Vodinh, guitar, backing vocals
Matt Wantland, guitar
Chad Grennor, bass
Luke Narey, drums

10 Years
Offering a Southern take on the moody atmosphere, muscular impact, and brash dynamics of alternative metal, 10 Years were formed in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1999. Guitarist Ryan "Tater" Johnson and drummer Brian Vodinh filled out the group's first lineup with lead vocalist Mike Underdown, guitarist Matt Wantland, and bassist Lewis Cosby; in 2001, Cosby left the band and Andy Parks became 10 Years' new bassist. That same year, the group recorded and self-released an independent album, Into the Half Moon, and they set out to expand their brand with more live work. In 2002, Mike Underdown stepped down as lead singer, and 10 Years recruited Jesse Hasek to take over the vocal spot; shortly afterward, Lewis Cosby returned as bassist, and in 2004 the band issued a second self-released album, Killing All That Holds You.

As their popularity grew, 10 Years were signed by Republic Records, and their major-label debut, The Autumn Effect, arrived in 2005. "Wasteland," a track from The Autumn Effect, rose to the top of the Billboard Alternative Songs chart, and the single went gold, while the band joined the lineup for the 2006 Family Values tour, alongside Deftones and Korn. Division, 10 Years' second album for Republic, was issued in 2008, and Feeding the Wolves appeared in 2010, the latter recorded after Matt Wantland left the band, with Vodinh adding additional guitar in the studio. Republic Records and 10 Years parted ways after the release of Feeding the Wolves, and rather than sign a new deal, 10 Years opted to launch their own label, Pale Horse Records (distributed by Warner Music's Independent Label Group).

10 Years kicked off Pale Horse with 2011's Minus the Machine, which debuted at number 26 on the Billboard Top 200 charts (it also came in at number eight on the Top Current Rock Albums ranking). In 2015, 10 Years returned with their second Pale Horse release, From Birth to Burial; it also marked the departure of Lewis Cosby from the group. The official lineup became a three-piece (Hasek, Johnson, and Vodinh), with additional musicians joining them for live dates (Chad Huff on guitar, Ryan Collier on bass, and Kyle Mayer on drums).

This album contains no booklet.