With stalwart determination and a penchant for all things loud, A New Faith is bringing its grunge-metal glory to the Flathead Valley and beyond.

The now 1-year-old four-piece band consists of Kalispell residents Austin Hinch, 24, on the microphone and rhythm guitar; Josh Moody, 25, on bass; and Travis Boose, 26, on lead guitar; along with Columbia Falls’ Cody Nicholson, 25, on drums.

Musically, A New Faith meanders between the gutsy chunk of Alice in Chains and the more straightforward metal of groups like Lamb of God, along with the occasional darkly emotional atmospheric track. That heaviness in the music, according to Hinch, is not by choice but by necessity.

“There’s certain things, especially with lyrics and the way I portray the stories I’m telling and things I’m writing about, that you just can’t say or sing,” Hinch said. “You’ve got to scream or get that squeal in the guitar.”

And their listeners are responding. Along with new fans and accidental attendees, each A New Faith show brings a growing cluster of hardcore fans who are absorbed from beginning to end, cheering and singing along.

“It’s got a little bit of something for everybody,” Hinch said. “The music hits them close to home.”

Despite the band’s short history, its members have been working hard and racking up accomplishments.

Their first album was a 10-track demo titled “The Storm and the Sunrise,” which they recorded themselves over the course of three months. Now they are preparing to mix and master a new self-titled album they recorded with the help of a local producer.

“Our major concern right now is that we want to have the integrity to represent what we actually believe in,” Boose said. “It’s not easy being a hard rock band, especially in the valley. Anywhere, really.”

Getting the band to the point it is at now has been a struggle.

“There are a lot of sacrifices to be made to play music,” Nicholson said. “Girlfriends, wives, kids, family. You have to take a lot of time out of your schedule.”

Boose, who has a family of his own and made it through rehab while maintaining his spot in the band, echoed Nicholson’s sentiments.

“I don’t see my son but once maybe a month, and Josh is lucky to spend a couple hours with his kids and he lives with them,” Boose said. “That’s the real trial of a working-class band. We don’t have anything that’s been handed to us.”

But through their struggles, the men of A New Faith have also found rejuvenation.

“When I’m up there with these guys, life kind of makes a little sense,” Boose said. “I think I’m the most honest person I’ve been in my entire life when I’m up on stage.”

Hinch put it in even starker terms.

“If I didn’t have music, I’d be dead,” Hinch said.

The four friends are using their passion to try to elicit the same from their audience.

“My goal in music is to touch as many people’s hearts as possible,” Moody said.

“I just want to have it be heard. Whether it’s free or whether we get paid absolutely nothing, as long as they hear it. I just want our music to be in their hands, because every song has a meaning to all of us.”

In the end, Hinch said, it’s all about getting out and having a good time.

“We played a show to two people once,” he said. “One time we played a show in front of 15 people at the Zone, and we had a blast doing it. That’s why we do it, because we have fun.”

In addition to A New Faith’s 20 to 25 appearances in the valley thus far, they have attracted attention beyond the local scene, most notably with an endorsement from Van Nuys, Calif.-based guitar manufacturer Schecter Guitar Research, known more commonly simply as Schecter.

The band has also appeared in Vents Magazine and several blogs, and their music has been aired on Missoula radio station 96.3 The Blaze.

For more information on A New Faith, visit their online homes at Facebook, Reverb Nation and Myspace.