The Story of Nail Bite
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Who Are the Members of Nail Bite?
Nail Bite is a metal band from Lancaster, Pennsylvania started by Johnnie Bitting in 2020. The original members of Nail Bite are Johnnie Bitting (Guitar/Vocals), Lonna Nelson (Vocals), Caiden Nelson (Keyboard), and John Bitting (Bass).
What Genre is Nail Bite?
Nail Bite is a metal band known for their diverse range of influences from other genres—they have been referred to as “avante-garde metal” as their mix of wildly different genres like EDM, trap, pop, world music, goth, weirdcore, swing, and more is combined with the intensity of heavy metal.
Nail Bite mixes singing, screaming, and death metal growling vocals with an array of sound that switches between brutally heavy and addictively catchy melodies.
The Origins of Nail Bite
The members of Nail Bite are made up of 2 families, John and Johnnie (Father/Son) and Lonna and Caiden (Sister/Brother). The 4 members all met at the Bitting family’s mixed martial arts studio at the time, Dragon MMA Academy, which was a nationally-winning competitive studio in which Johnnie won 21 international and 38 national championships.
As the COVID-19 Pandemic went into full force, martial arts competitions came to a halt and Johnnie decided to turn his attention from the martial arts stage to music instead, and in January 2020 Nail Bite was formed. After creating the first two singles “Anxious” and “Free Your Mind”, Lonna, Caiden, and John, were introduced into the band.
In January 2021, Nail Bite released their debut album “Mammoth of the Great Sea” which introduced a raw, self-produced sound which drew parallels to black metal and death metal. In September of the same year, Nail Bite made their way to Virginia’s Blue Ridge Rock Festival which over 160,000 people attended that year. The festival was Nail Bite’s first music festival and their 3rd ever show, and it introduced the Pennsylvania act to a wide audience that helped jumpstart their early career.
By December of 2021, Nail Bite unleashed their 2nd album “Lost Travelers” which features one of the band’s breakthrough songs “Disengage”. With 2022 came more incredible opportunities as Nail Bite appeared on Danny Wimmer Presents “Space Zebra Charts” for 36 weeks, maintaining the #1 spot for 19 weeks. In lieu of the band’s success on the show, Nail Bite was added to that year’s Louder Than Life and Inkarceration Festivals which both have a combined attendance of over 250,000 people. Nail Bite also played as direct support for Bad Omens, at the 1 year anniversary show of the DWPresents Twitch show. Following their festival performances that year, Nail Bite was named “Chart Kings”, “Live Band of the Year” and “Top Unsigned Band” by DWPresents, starting the band’s ascent to becoming one of the fastest growing unsigned metal bands.
After 2021’s “Lost Travelers”, Nail Bite released 6 singles leading up to their February 2023 album, “Welcome to Partyland” with swing metal track “Little Friend of Mine” gathering significant attention. In 2023, Nail Bite played Louder than Life festival once again, alongside acts like Foo Fighters, Slipknot, Pantera, and more as they continued to bring their sound to the main stages.
After 2023’s album “Welcome to Partyland”, Nail Bite has released 7 singles with plans to release their upcoming album by the end of 2024. This year has been the biggest yet for the metal quartet as live performances at Michigan Metal Fest—amongst others—have gone completely viral, gaining millions of views and drawing in tens of thousands of new followers. Nail Bite is amassing an exponentially growing fan base on social media and is solidifying their place as one of the biggest independent metal acts in the country.
You can stream their latest music on all streaming platforms below!