as hardcore, while The Offspring frontman Dexter Holland started Nitro Records, a label which released music from a number of hardcore bands including AFI, A Wilhelm Scream, Crime in Stereo, Ensign, The Letters Organize, No Trigger, and T.S.O.L. Meanwhile, Rancid would record a hardcore album with 2000's Rancid. The same year punk became popular again in 1994, Sick of It All released the major label album Scratch the Surface. According to lead singer Lou Koller, people were thinking they would go from a hardcore band to sounding like Green Day, so they intentionally made an album heavier than anything they'd done before. The album became a surprise success, with the single "Step Down" becoming a staple on MTV, thanks to a tongue-in-cheek music video featuring a roving reporter "exposing" the world of hardcore, and showing how to do various hardcore dance moves. The '90s also saw a rise in pop-punk bands like New Found Glory and Saves The Day, who garnered attention from fans of hardcore due to band member connections to the contemporary hardcore scene. With the increased popularity of punk rock in the mid-1990s and the 2000s, additional hardcore bands signed with major record labels. In 2001, New York's H2O released the album Go on MCA, but it failed at bringing the band big success, and fell flat with longtime fans. In 2002, AFI signed to DreamWorks Records but changed their sound considerably for its successful major label debut Sing the Sorrow. Chicago's Rise Against were signed by Geffen Records, and three of its releases on the label were certified platinum by the RIAA. Like AFI, Rise Against gradually removed elements of hardcore from their music, culminating with 2008's Appeal to Reason, which lacked the intensity found in their earlier albums. Notable independent label Bridge 9 Records saw several of their artists rise to prominence, including Defeater, Verse and Have Heart, who had a Billboard chart entry with their second album, 'Songs To Scream At The Sun'. In an AllMusic review, Greg Prato wrote about the label's band Energy that "While you wouldn't go quite as far as calling Energy "a hardcore Boy band," the group's leanings toward the mainstream are undeniable throughout Invasions of the Mind". United Kingdom band Gallows were signed to Warner Bros. Records for £1 million. Their major label debut Grey Britain was described as being even more aggressive than their previous material, and