Grady Avenell

Grady Avenell (born December 25, 1972) is an American rock/metal musician. He is the lead vocalist and songwriter for the Sacramento, California-based hardcore/noise metal band Will Haven.

He is known for his intense vocal style, full of grunts, growls, cries, and screams.

Grady Avenell was born on December 25, 1972, in California.

He started his music career in the early 1990s in a local metal outfit SOCK with Adam Federico on bass, Jeff Irwin on drums, and Shaun Lopez on guitars. In 1995, they released a 10-track album 3243 on Minus Head Records.

Will Haven (1995-2002)

In 1995, Avenell and Jeff Irwin formed Will Haven with local Sacramento musicians Mike Martin (bass) and Wayne Morse (drums). On April 11, 1996, Will Haven performed at The Grind in West Sacramento, sharing stages with Beastie Boys, Quasar, and Sick of It All. The same year, they released their self-titled seven-track debut album on Landspeed Records.

In 1997, Will Haven was signed to Jordan Cooper and Ray Cappo's Revelation Records and released three albums—El Diablo (1997), WHVN (1999), and Carpe Diem (2001)—all engineered and mixed by Eric Stenman.

After El Diablo (1997) and WHVN (1999), Mitch Wheeler replaced Wayne Morse on drums in 2000. Later that year, Avenell and Chino Moreno of Deftones guested on Soulfly's track "Pain", which was featured on the album Primitive.

In 2001, Will Haven released their third studio album, Carpe Diem. The title track of the album, "Carpe Diem", features Chino Moreno (of Deftones) in the promotional video. Will Haven and Deftones, both Sacramento metal bands, often collaborated. Earlier, Will Haven members appeared in the music video for Deftones' 1996 single "Bored".

In 2001, the band went on a world tour to promote Carpe Diem, including a performance at the Vans Warped Tour in Australia.

In the early 2000s, Avenell also guested on two tracks of the band Far—"9 Miles", and a cover of Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas Time?" with Chino Moreno.

Temporary break from music (2002-2005)

From 2002 to 2005, Avenell took a hiatus from music to focus on education and his family.

Back to Will Haven (2005-2007)

Avenell returned to Will Haven in October 2005, and the band got back to producing new work.

From March 12 to March 21, 2006, Will Haven and the New Orleans metal band Crowbar teamed up for a UK tour. Avenell wasn't able to perform on Will Haven dates in Glasgow (March 15) and Newport (March 16) due to personal reasons and his position was filled by various local musicians—Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro; Craig B of Aereogramme; Mikey Demus of Skindred; Crowbar frontman Kirk Windstein; and Sheep of The Seventh Cross.

Temporary break (2007-2009)

Avenell again left Will Haven in 2007 for two years and was replaced by Jeff Jaworski, the vocalist for Sacramento punk band Red Tape. Avenell was not on Haven's fourth album The Hierophant, though he was involved in the songwriting process.

Back to Will Haven (2009-)

Avenell returned to Will Haven in the fall of 2009. On October 12, 2009, the band released a statement: "After a little time off and doing a few benefit shows for our brother Chi Cheng of the Deftones, we are back to work. As some of you may have seen Grady did join us for a few of the benefit shows we did for Chi and also an amazing show in San Francisco a few months ago. After those shows, we had a few discussions about Will Haven's future and Grady expressed that he would like to be a part of it. So after working out details, I am very happy to say that we are currently working on a new record with Grady handling the vocal duties. Jeff Jaworski will still be a big part of the band and helping with the writing process on the new record. So we are more than excited to be all working together on making an amazing record."

On October 10, 2011, Will Haven released their fifth studio album Voir Dire on Jason Bieler's independent record label Bieler Bros. The 10-track album features new bassist Chris Fehn (then-percussionist of Slipknot), replacing Mike Martin.

Avenell continues to perform with Will Haven and has since worked on two more metal albums—Muerte (2018) and VII (2023)—both on Minus Head Records. Muerte features guest appearances from Stephen Carpenter of Deftones and Mike Scheidt of doom metal band Yob from Oregon.

With Will Haven

• 1997 – El Diablo
• 1999 – WHVN
• 2001 – Carpe Diem
• 2011 – Voir Dire

As a guest musician

• Far (band) – 9 Miles and Do They Know It's Christmas? (with Chino Moreno)
• Soulfly – Pain (with Chino Moreno) on the album Primitive