Foundation and single releases Swollen Members was founded in 1997 by Vancouverites
Madchild (Shane Bunting) and
Prevail (Kiley Hendriks). The duo had chemistry while rapping together at a house party and formed the group. The name was suggested by
Moka Only (Daniel Denton), who later joined the group in the early 2000’s. The group released four 12-inch vinyl singles on Madchild's indie label
Battle Axe Records, initially distributed by New York-based Fat Beats. The singles sold approximately 10,000 copies each.
1999-2000: Balance In 1999, the group released their debut album
Balance, with features from
Del the Funky Homosapien,
Aceyalone,
The Alchemist, and
Evidence, who also produced on the album. The album peaked at #40 on Canadian alternative albums, #43 on Canadian rap albums, earned gold status in Canada and won the 2001
Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year.
2001–2002: Bad Dreams Following
Balance, Swollen Members released
Bad Dreams on November 13, 2001, featuring guests
Chali 2na of
Jurassic 5,
Son Doobie, Joey Chavez, and Moka Only. It appealed to both underground and mainstream audiences, reaching platinum status in Canada. The album earned Swollen Members their second Juno Award and the song “
Fuel Injected” won four
MuchMusic Video Awards.
2002–2003: Monsters in the Closet 2002's
Monsters In the Closet, their third release, brought group membership for Moka Only and Rob The Viking.
Monsters in the Closet was a collection of B-sides and outtakes along with three new songs. The song "Breath" featuring Portuguese Canadian pop singer,
Nelly Furtado won a
MuchMusic Video Award for Best Rap Video. Production credits include
Evidence of
Dilated Peoples. The album earned a gold certification and peaked at #7 in Canada. The group also won their third consecutive Juno Award. In January 2003, Swollen Members signed with
Virgin Records.
2003–2004: Heavy In 2003, the group released
Heavy. The album includes Moka Only on every song, for the first time. In the same year the songs "All Night" and "Deep End (
Utah Saints Remix)" were featured in the video game
SSX3. In 2004, the song "Bottom Line" was featured in the
video games
WWE Day of Reckoning and
WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw.
2005–2007: Black Magic In 2005, Moka Only left the group for a second time and continued work on his solo career. The following year, Swollen Members released their fifth full album,
Black Magic. A single from the album, "Put Me On” (feat.
Everlast) was released in August 2006. Later that year, Nettwerk Management dropped the group due to Madchild's affiliation with the Hell's Angels. The album would go on to win the group their fourth Juno Award in 2007.
2009–2010: Armed to the Teeth, Greatest Hits Armed to the Teeth was released October 27, 2009, through Kottonmouth Kings label Suburban Noize Records. Featured artists on the album include
La Coka Nostra,
Talib Kweli,
Tech N9ne, Tre Nyce, and a return of Moka Only on the previously released track, "Red Dragon". This release was followed by a North American tour with Australian Hip-Hop group Bliss 'n' Eso. In 2010, Swollen Members released their greatest hits album, which reached #110 on the
Canadian Albums Chart.
2011–2012: Dagger Mouth Swollen Members scheduled the release of a studio album,
Dagger Mouth, for April 2011, under Suburban Noize. Its first single is "Mr. Impossible". The second single released off
Dagger Mouth is "Bring Me Down" which features rapper
Saigon. A compilation album titled
Monsters 2 was released August 2, 2011. The album was nominated at the 2012 Juno Awards.
2013: Beautiful Death Machine On March 19, 2013, their ninth studio album,
Beautiful Death Machine was released, and debuted at number 3 on the Canadian Albums Chart, making it the group's highest charting album in Canada.
2014: Brand New Day On June 17, 2014, the group released their tenth studio album
Brand New Day. In mid-February 2015, Madchild was listed on the
King of the Dot BO5 card against the battle rapper by the stage name of
Daylyt.
2018: "Bank Job" and other projects In 2018, the Swollen Members single "Bank Job" was released, followed by several solo releases by Madchild and Prevail and Rob the Viking's new project XL The Band. In 2021, Swollen Members released a single and music video for "Tetris" featuring Neph. Since then, Madchild has been focused on solo releases, and Prevail and Rob the Viking have been focused on XL The Band. ==Group members==