Victory Records has announced the signing of Toronto’s THE BLACK MARIA. Following the implosion of the genre-defining GRADE (the band that many music writers and bands give credit to for the creation in 1995 of the screamo genre), its mastermind and creative leader, Kyle Bishop, was possessed to create something profoundly new and vibrant. He connected with Chris Gray (ZYON) and Alan Nacinovic. The troupe was completed with a groove-laden rhythm section of Derek Petrella on drums and multi-instrumentalist, Mike De Eyre, on bass. They chose the THE BLACK MARIA as their band name, which comes from the slang term given to a police patrol wagon- “The Deliverer of Death.”

They head into the studio this month to record their debut album. For more information on THE BLACK MARIA go to www.theblackmaria.com.