Ashes You Leave
Fire
5
You know you're in for something different from the very beginning of the new album from Ashes You Leave, entitled "Fire". The album starts with the sound of footsteps. Then suddenly the sound of a door opening to screams of torment. This album is faily unique, and yet not very unique at all. It's quite the oxymoron actually. Okay, let me put it this way; what do you get when you combine doom, gothic, symphonic and opera styles? Of course, Ashes You Leave. But, still it sounds like the combination of said musical styles layered over eachother. Some musicians can take several styles and totally re-invent it into their own. This isn't so much the case with Ashes You Leave. I'll start by giving you a quick background. Ashes You Leave is based out of Croatia. "Fire" is their fourth album and, in my opinion, a good visionary effort. The band consists of six members, which is down from seven I believe. The vocals are female with backing male vocals occasionally. Of course a guitarist and a bassist are present. The band also boasts a keyboard player and violinist. A pretty cool combination! Call me a sucker, but I have a soft spot for female vocalists. Probably because there just haven't been enough in the metal world up to this point, although now I'm starting to wonder. If one of these gals would mix up the pure and angelic with some nasty demonic, I'd be floored! As it is, supposedly the thing to be is pure and angelic (except for Angela Gossow of course). Basically, it boils down to doom and gothic music over symphonic keyboards and violins. Adding to that, female vocals with an opera/theatrical feel and you end up with the album "Fire". It's pretty cool, especially in theory. In practice, things really have to come together just right in order to get the full impact. How does this album stack up? Well, the music itself is pretty good overall. It's nothing intricate and jaw dropping, but it's cool in regards to the overall presence the album has. I thought some of the violin parts were perfect. The riffs and drums are simple, simple , simple. But combined with the vocals, keyboards and violin; they come across fairly well. I thought a few of the melodies were pretty cool as well. The addition of gutteral, almost Benediction like, vocals add tremendously. I had real problems with some of the production work of the album. In track #4 the vocals become overwhelming and distorted. In another area, the vocals are so out of phase I thought the room was spinning! Not very appealing at all. Normally the vocals were pretty decent sounding. It did, however, seem like every song had some annoying aspect to it, thanks mostly to the engineering/production team. Whether it be instuments/vocals forcing their way into the mix or just plain stupid control room tricks, things like this shouldn't pass even in Croatia. The album seemed to sound better into track 4. But still, guitar, bass and drum tracks don't sound very good at all. Not a strong backbone for an album to be built around. This was somewhat compensated for by the usually good sounding vocals, keys and violin. Although I thought some things on this album were just plain cheesy and not executed very well. The album has a coolness factor to it, but overall it's on the weak side. Lots of good ideas are here, but they have been somewhat spoiled in my opinion. It's too bad, I see the potential but it's just not all that happening as it stands. Overall, a novelty album for the curious. For most, it's not worth a second look/listen. Check out their sample mp3's from past albums at ashesyouleave.org to give you an idea of what their about.
