Aiden is an American post-hardcore band from Seattle, Washington that formed in the spring of 2003. They took their name from the character in the movie The Ring, although with a different spelling with an 'e' instead of an 'a'. The current members are WiL Francis (vocals, guitar, piano, lyrics), Jake Davison (drums), Nick Wiggins (bass), and Angel Ibarra (lead guitar). WiL originally played bass but took over lead vocals when the original singer left.

Aiden's first full-length album "Our Gang's Dark Oath" was released on Dead Teenager Records in 2004. It was recorded while Jake Davison and Angel Ibarra were still in high school, being released shortly after they had left.

Later in 2005, the band was signed to Victory Records. Their second album and debut for Victory Records titled "Nightmare Anatomy" was released October 4, 2005.

Aiden's song "One Love" appears in Resident Evil: Extinction, and their song "We Sleep Forever" is featured in the motion picture Dead Silence.

The band's third studio album entitled "Conviction" was released August 21, 2007. It marks a complete change of style in the band's musical direction.

In addition, Aiden recorded their own version of Ashley Massaro's theme music "Let's Light a Fire Tonight" for the bonus edition of WWE The Music, Vol. 8.

On May 20, 2008 the band announced on their website that Jake Wambold was no longer a member of Aiden. They played their first live show as a four piece in Spokane, Washington on May 24, 2008.

Francis has started a website and a MySpace page for a side project called "William Control". William Control is a sort of alter-ego to WiL, and the album consists of dark content lyric-wise, which WiL stated in a Kerrang! interview did not suit Aiden. William Control's debut album, Hate Culture, was released on October 27, 2008 in the UK, and October 28 in the U.S.

Aiden also appeared on the soundtrack to The Lost Boys: The Tribe, with a cover of the theme song "Cry Little Sister".

Ibarra has also begun a self-named side project, which had its first performance in Metro Seattle in late January of 2009. He has also announced a new side project with Davison, called Rock 'n Roll Weekend.

Aiden's recent offering, an album titled "Knives", was released on May 12th, 2009. It was recorded at the same studio WiL produced Hate Culture. "I think that a lot of people who hated "Conviction" will really like this one. But who knows and who really cares? We're just going to make the record we want to make."

On March 31, 2009, a new single, "Scavengers of the Damned", was made available through iTunes.

And speaking of iTunes, this is the response Wil Francis sent to Apple iTunes, with regards to Aiden's content being denied on the popular music download site:

Dear Apple,

What can I really say that Trent Reznor hasn't? "I want to fuck you like an animal?" Oh wait, he said that. "I am a big man and I have a big gun. Got me a big ol’ dick and I like to have fun, held it against your forehead, I'll make you suck it, maybe I'll put a hole in your head, you know, just for the fuck of it." Yeah, he said that, too, all on a record called The Downward Spiral. I have purchased that album five times in my life. I first got it on Cassette when it came out in 1994, I bought it a couple of times on CD and last year I purchased it on iTunes right after I went out and picked up the vinyl. Why? Because it's a great fucking record.

I don't want to go on the same rant as him, although I probably share the exact same feelings.

So what if a crappy punk band from Seattle sings about the deception of religion as a whole? So what if they sing about Catholic priests molesting little boys? Who really cares at all if they wail about a Hungarian Countess that was born in the 1500's and killed over 600 women? Who Cares? The PMRC? Ted Haggard? Congress? Jesus? Oh wait, no… JESUS ISN’T FUCKING REAL.

Yes, maybe we talked a little bit of shit while doing the commentary for the iPhone app about Christianity, about sex and about... Fuck I can't even remember because it's so fucking insignificant. Why don't you be a little clearer in what it was that we need to watch out for? Oh wait... I thought I lived in America where my freedom of speech right was protected by the constitution?

That's right, I forgot. I actually live in Hell. Oops. Remind me to tell someone I have a complaint to submit in the box on the wall.

Aside from the content issue, the app was also rejected because you want to "protect" the value of the iTunes store and having an app with embedded content "competes" with what is ultimately your monopoly. Ironic and hypocritical, no, since Apple owns both channels?

I just want to say thank you Apple for not approving our iPhone app. Thank you so much. To celebrate this great occasion, I'm going to visit your iTunes Music Store and download The Slim Shady LP; I really want to hear that song he sings about killing his wife and dumping her body in the ocean. Awesome!!!

William Control / AIDEN

PS: Any by the way, we have sold over 325,000 albums so far in our career without widespread mainstream media exposure. So, we must be relevant to someone.

Below is our rejection confirmation:

"Dear XXXXXX,

Thank you for submitting Aiden to the App Store. We've reviewed Aiden and determined that we cannot post this version of your application to the App Store at this time. Because your app downloads media files that are not managed by the iTunes application, which also manages media files, we believe this would be confusing to the user. To avoid this customer confusion, we have chosen to not publish this type of application to the App Store.

In addition, we've reviewed Aiden and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store because it contains objectionable content and is in violation of Section 3.3.12 from the iPhone SDK Agreement which states:

"Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple's reasonable judgement may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users."

If you believe you can make the necessary modifications to bring your application in compliance with iPhone Software License Agreement, we encourage you to do so and resubmit it for review.

Regards,

iPhone Developer Program"

*Please show your displeasure by contacting iTunes - this isn't just about Aiden, this is about all artists and how it effects them and us, because, if you like a band, if you like their music, but they are being handcuffed in what they are being allowed to express, in it's rawest art form, then what's the point? Whatever happened to freedom of speech, freedom of expression? It's bad enough Walmart has a monopoly on record sales and refuse to allow explicit content material to be sold in any of their stores, but now iTunes is doing the same thing to artists as well? Give me a fucking break! The loudest voices always get heard - we can make changes - together!!*

Tina Peek

Visit Aiden here:

Myspace: www.myspace.com/aiden

Official Website: www.aiden.org/index2.php

Check out William Control here:

Myspace: www.myspace.com/williamcontrol