Ashes In The Sky
Relentless
(Self-Release)
Relentless embodies its influences from beginning to end, capturing that popular metalcore sound of the mid 2000s. Ashes In The Sky delivers solid electric moments with great guitar work, terrific drumming, and some heavy moments in the deep vocals (while also having strong singing). While playing off this sound however, the band finds themselves at once creating some good hits, while also playing into clichés.
Opener “Here to Stay” begins with some grade A drumming; it isn’t necessarily a climb in tension, but takes a few steps forward before a beastly stomping occurs. It is after where the guitar and bass fly off, and the track really grabs hold with terrific melodies that fluctuate from speed to gentle. The song gives a straight forward idea of what to expect from most of the work to come. Relentless sticks to its metalcore foundation, resembling bands like Bullet For My Valentine and A Day To Remember. Following with “Relentless”, the music builds on this idea more, coming out of the gates with pummeling drums and shredding, which eventually lead to deeper growls and chugs. The overall sound will become strongly familiar the further one progresses into the album, and while obvious, never becomes tiresome.
To then shake things up, the band throws in some tracks that take on sounds leaning towards alternative rock. “Coward” is the first to do this as it plays around in the verses with gentle picks, throwing in brief moments of electric solos. Songs like “Empty Space” and “Rain” take on a similar approach, but are able to throw in their own spins to differentiate. “Torn Away” is pretty fun, as it feels like something off City of Evil by Avenged Sevenfold. The drum beat becomes immediately hyped up, as the guitar slowly builds, first light and melodic, then unleashing into some nice riffs.
Where the band finds difficulty is in the lyrics. While there is nothing wrong with straight forward lyrics, they at times ring with a cringe-worthy unease. There are some themes of difficult relationships, which is fine and all, but when there are lines such as: “I can’t stand to be here without you baby…” or “The sands of time don’t slow/ light always turns to dark…”, it just comes off as cheap clichés. This is jarring against such good instrumentation, and can take the listener out of the song. That being said, vocally the music displays good deep lows and powerful clean singing which help in diversity.
Ashes In The Sky have found a sound that works for them, creating some catchy and speedy jams that hook. It is obvious at times to hear their influences on the tracks, but they never overpower the band’s own identity completely. Relentless has both strong melodic and speedy instrumentation, along with great range in vocals. While the lyricism isn’t the most top notch, Ashes In The Sky are overall able to present a fun record in Relentless.
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