Like a Storm

Like a Storm formed in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2005, when brothers Chris, Matt, and Kent Brooks began jamming together after years spent playing in separate local bands. Like a Storm formed in Auckland in 2005 around talented siblings Chris (lead vocals, guitar, keys, didgeridoo), Matt (lead guitar, vocals, keys, programming), and Kent Brooks (bass, vocals, keys, programming), and their friend Zach Wood (drums), employing a bottom-heavy hard rock sound that invoked names like Shinedown, Puddle of Mudd, Staind, and Drowning Pool, though their use of the throbbing drones of the tribal didgeridoo added a signature Kiwi touch. Guitarist Matt Brooks later recalled the instant chemistry among the siblings, saying, "We just felt this amazing musical connection... We knew that we had to start a band together." Chasing bigger opportunities, the group relocated to North America shortly after forming, eventually ending up in Vancouver. The band's breakthrough began in earnest once they landed in the United States. They first gained prominence overseas in 2009 while opening for Creed on the group's Full Circle reunion tour, and they released their debut long-player The End of the Beginning the same year. That opportunity came through a personal connection: producer Mike Plotnikoff, with whom the band lived while making their debut album, played their first single for Creed and Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti, who offered Like a Storm the opening slot on Creed's nationwide arena tour, an opportunity that won them thousands of fans and pushed their debut album onto the Billboard charts from tour sales alone. Their true commercial peak arrived with the 2015 album Awaken the Fire, released via Century Media, whose single "Love the Way You Hate Me" became a genuine hit. The single was #1 on Sirius XM Octane in North America for five weeks, making the band the highest-charting New Zealand rock act in US radio history, and it charted for 19 weeks on the Mainstream Rock chart, peaking at No. 21. The album generated four consecutive Top 40 Active Rock Chart singles, including "Love the Way You Hate Me," "Wish You Hell," "Become The Enemy," and "Break Free," and both of their two studio albums, The End of the Beginning and Awaken the Fire, debuted in the Billboard 200 .

Across a relentless touring career, Like a Storm built its reputation the hard way, opening for and later headlining alongside some of hard rock's biggest names. The band toured North America extensively as a headline act and shared American and European stages with Godsmack, Alter Bridge, Gojira, Korn, Shinedown, Three Days Grace, Sevendust, Black Stone Cherry, Steel Panther, and Hellyeah. Beyond their two charting studio records, the band expanded its catalog with a variety of live and acoustic releases, including Like A Storm Unplugged in 2011, a DVD entitled Southern Skies in 2012, the Chaos Theory Pt. 1 EP, and a 2013 live double album, Worlds Collide: Live from the Ends of the Earth. They pushed further with the 2018 album Catacombs, described as their third album, the slightly more polished Catacombs , and continued to tour behind it with runs alongside major acts into the following years.

The band, now performing as the core trio of Chris, Matt, and Kent Brooks, remains active, having continued to tour internationally in recent years, including dates across Europe and North America into the mid-2020s. Their didgeridoo-infused sound has become something of a signature in modern hard rock, and they are still widely cited as one of the hardest working, most original sounding bands in the business and the most successful New Zealand rock export in American radio history. Decades after their Auckland origins, the Brooks brothers' combination of heavy riffs and indigenous instrumentation continues to set them apart on rock radio and festival stages alike.

It is fitting that Like a Storm holds a place in this archive. Wayne Dennon photographed the band during a single show back in 2010, capturing them in the raw, early years of their North American climb, not long after they had first broken through opening for Creed. That night's performance lives on through the 27 photographs preserved here, images that have since drawn more than 21,400 views from archive visitors revisiting the era before the band's biggest radio hits. It stands as a small but lasting piece of Wayne's broader mission: preserving the moments when hard-touring bands like this one were still building the loyal following that would carry them for the next two decades.