Aiden is an American rock band from Seattle, Washington, that formed in the spring of 2003. They achieved underground success during the mid to late 2000s with their classic lineup, featuring vocalist William Francis, guitarists Angel Ibarra and Jake Wambold, bassist Nick Wiggins, and drummer Jake Davison.

The band formed in 2003 and is named after the character Aidan Keller of the 2002 film The Ring ("Dude, that kid's just spooky," Francis said of the character whose name is actually spelled Aidan). Their first full-length album Our Gangs Dark Oath, was released on Dead Teenager Records in 2004. It was recorded while Jake Davison and Angel Ibarra were still in high school and released shortly after they had left.

Later in 2005, the band was signed to Victory Records. Their second album and debut for Victory Records titled Nightmare Anatomy, was released October 4, 2005. The album peaked at number 196 on the Billboard 200, number 9 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart, and number 16 on the Billboard Independent Albums Chart. The album has since become one of the band's most commercially and critically successful albums to date. It spawned three successful singles, "The Last Sunrise", "Die Romantic", and "Knife Blood Nightmare".

In March 2006, Aiden played a US tour supporting Thirty Seconds to Mars, and later another US tour supporting the Finnish band HIM, during their Dark Light tour. In April 2007, they played with Lostprophets and Taking Back Sunday. Aiden also partook in the Taste of Chaos 2007 North American Tour alongside The Used, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Senses Fail, Saosin, Chiodos, and Evaline. They played a West Coast tour, followed by a national tour, Confessions in the Dark Tour, with Drop Dead, Gorgeous, Still Remains, and the band 1997.

The band's third studio album entitled Conviction, was released on August 21, 2007 and marks a complete change of style in the band's musical direction. The album received commercial success, peaking at number 54 on the Billboard 200, and at number 5 on the Independent albums chart. The first single from Conviction, "One Love", appears in Resident Evil: Extinction, and their song "We Sleep Forever" is featured on the soundtrack of the motion picture Dead Silence. On October 9, 2007, through a MySpace bulletin the band announced that they were filming their next music video, for the song "Moment", thus confirming it as the next single. The band played a show in Anchorage, Alaska in January 2008, introducing their U.S. tour with Madina Lake in February and March 2008. This was the first part of their three-part "World by Storm Tour", the second part of which was a month-long Europe tour with Kill Hannah from late March to late April 2008. The third part, a tour from Massachusetts back to their home base in Seattle, occupied much of May 2008, but the band pulled out of the tour after two shows, according to their web site for "personal reasons". However, the band did reinstate the final two shows, in Spokane and Seattle, near their home base. They played the Bamboozle Festival in East Rutherford, New Jersey in May 2008. Aiden recorded their own version of Ashley Massaro's theme music "Let's Light a Fire Tonight" for the bonus edition of WWE The Music, Vol. 8.

On May 20, 2008, the band announced on their website that Jake Wambold was no longer a member of Aiden. They played their first live show as a four-piece in Spokane, Washington on May 24, 2008. Francis has started a website and a MySpace page for a side project called William Control. William Control is a sort of alter-ego to wiL, and the albums consist of dark content lyric-wise, which wiL stated in a Kerrang! interview did not suit Aiden. Aiden also appeared on the soundtrack to Lost Boys: The Tribe with a cover of the theme song "Cry Little Sister", and did a European tour in October 2008, followed by a U.S. tour in November, called The Suffer Little Children Tour, finishing December 7. On December 14 Aiden posted a blog on their MySpace saying that they are in the studio writing and recording songs for their next album. The blog also said that there are about 25 songs that they are working with and William also mentioned he'd written 30 songs for the new record in an Alternative Press podcast.

Aiden's fourth full-length album entitled Knives was released on May 12, 2009 (May 11 in the UK). The album peaked at number 95 on the Billboard 200 and at number 12 on the Independent Albums chart. On March 31, 2009, a new single, "Scavengers of the Damned," was made available through iTunes, the second single being Let The Right One In. In April 2009 Aiden announced a UK tour on their MySpace. They stated that they chose the smallest venues that were available. In May Aiden headlined the Music Saves Lives Summer Kickoff Party. While out on the 2009 Van's Warped Tour they did signings for the non-profit organization where they met with fans who gained special access to the band by donating blood. In January and February 2010 the band accompanied Anti-Flag on the 'Economy Sucks, Let's Party!' Tour, where in Chicago they filmed a live DVD and CD entitled From Hell... with Love, which was released on March 16, 2010, as stated in an interview with BareBonesMusic.com. Also in addition they stated on Kerrang that they will be returning to the UK and Europe with Saosin. After Saosin pulled out, the tour was planned to continue but was later cancelled because of a lack of funds. Aiden then toured the UK in November/December 2010 with Support from Francesqa and The Dead Formats.

On February 2, 2011, Disguises was released on March 29, 2011. The first single released was "Walk Among the Dead" on iTunes. A music video for "Hysteria" was released in April, and a music video for "A Portrait of the Artist" was released the last week in June.