Chris Volz

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Chris Volz, born August 6, 1973, in Bowie, Maryland, is an American singer and songwriter. He’s best known as the lead singer of the nu metal band Flaw and as the former frontman of Five.Bolt.Main. In 2007 he released a solo album, Redemption, on Rock Ridge Music. Together with Flaw and his other projects, he has sold about 750,000 records in the United States. Flaw and Volz appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2018. In 2009 Flaw released Home Grown Studio Sessions, the first new material since 2004. He talked about reviving Flaw with new material and touring around 2012 and 2013. In 2013 the band returned with a longtime lineup and began rehearsals for new songs and live shows. In 2021 reports emerged that Volz had used racial slurs at a concert, and he was dropped by the label distributing his side projects. In 2022 Flaw released Revival, their first full-length album in nearly five years, with a tour.

Volz grew up in Maryland and started studying music early. He was adopted at age 2 by Helga, an operatic singer who influenced his love of music; Helga died by suicide when Volz was about 11 or 12. He has cited jazz, classical, and metal as influences, and he uses a mix of melodic singing and aggressive screaming. The Flaw songs “Whole” and Five.Bolt.Main’s “The Gift” deal with Helga. Volz later learned Helga was not his birth mother. After her death, he faced discipline problems, spending time in military school, juvenile detention centers, and rehab. He dropped out of Bowie High School but later reconciled with his father, Joe, who was his best man at Volz’s wedding. He is now based in Wisconsin.