Ashes To Fire
“Still Waters”
2016
This is the 2016 EP release from French djent, metalcore / deathcore gurus, ASHES TO FIRE or ATF. Though talented & technical, I find the majority of this release to be an effort in controlled chaos & overly complex. Break out your slide ruler kids, it’s math metal time.
Listening to this EP, made me feel as if I we’re in some sort of well planned musical train wreck while the conductor was playing Mario Bros. At this point I began blaming bands like In Flames & Messhuggah for pissing in the metal gene pool. To be more constructive, it’s progressive death metal meeting post hardcore, what I like to call, hipster metal.
Though I prefer my metal a little less math involved, I decided to give it another go or 3, in hopes of finding something more to my liking in all this.
The first thing you get is an annoying 80’s video game sounding intro diddy. It’s an EP, do you really need an intro that has absolutely nothing to do with the track that follows? It’s like they had a song half written, or a bunch of riffs & hideous keyboard sounding stuff lying around & decided to do something with it. Did these guys take a math made metal course or something? As you get into the meat of things, the songs “Real Life” & “Sara” bring to mind an August Burns Red style of annoyances & gave me that “everybody solo” kind of feeling,. Amongst all the annoying fodder of math metal, there were some good riffs involved. The tune “Dad & Mom” is by far my favorite on here, with
“Roots to Sheets” coming in at second until the latter part of the song when it returns to the dance party Nintendo core butchering the majority of the other tunes possess. Redemption failed. I guess once you’ve gone math, you can never go back.
Obviously I’m not a fan of this or any of mentioned genres of metal & find the majority of these newer genres of metal to be the flavor of the week for introverted gamer nerds.
With that said, I leave you with this, if you’re into Messhuggah, Thy Art is Murder, August Burns Red or Born of Osiris, you will love this drivel. For my metal tastes, I’d give this a two out of ten, but as this genre goes, they are good at what they’re doing.
Tracklist:
1. Intro
2. Real Life
3. Dad And Mom
4. To Disappear
5. Roots To Sheet
6. Sara
Members:
Yas – Vocals
Nico – Lead Guitars
Dylan – Guitars
Corekie – Bass
William – Drums
Rating: 5 out of 10
~Skarecreaux