Having not heard this band before I was slightly hesitant before acquiring this piece. I had been looking to extend my doom collection within the christian range and stumbled across From Ashes. After taking a bit of time to ask around about them before running into anything I found a lot of mixed opinions about them ranging from "It's garbage" to "It's not bad at all!" I decided to give a try in the end and sought out a copy of the "As the Leaves Fall." Once I had it I gave the album a once through and honestly. I wasn't overly impressed.
It wasn't a bad album by any means at all. It carries the mantle of black metal, gothic metal and doom all rolled into one very palpable mix that is definately listenable to. They mixed their sounds together well, it was well produced and the album isn't a shameful addition to your collection whether you're a goth, a doomer, or an avid black metal fan. However, it did feel strained. As though they had come up with three decent songs, a few decent riffs and then decided to water it all down by spreading it through an entire ten songs. Had this been an EP it would have been brilliant.
This album did have some very good tracks on it. The three songs: Starlit Thoughts, Dream of Eternity and Exiled were three brilliant songs incorperating sorrow, anger and inner turbulance. However the brilliance ended there and the rest of the songs just feel flat. It's like those three songs were the only inspirations and the rest were just album fillers. Most of the sung vocals are weightless and annoying with little effort put in. Many of the riffs lack anything tasteful such as groove, atmosphere, intricate melodies or technical brilliance. Oh and believe me, you can expect a fair amount of cliche church organ use too.
As said in the title this album had so much potential that was clearly wasted.
If you don't mind spending an albums worth for three good songs then by all means this is for you. But this release will never stand up to the likes of Antestor, My Silent Wake, Virgin Black, Fearscape, Horde, Crimson Moonlight or any of the other christian doom//gothic/black metal giants. In my honest opinion your money would be better spent acquiring their releases instead.
Download@Mediafire
Band Merch
It wasn't a bad album by any means at all. It carries the mantle of black metal, gothic metal and doom all rolled into one very palpable mix that is definately listenable to. They mixed their sounds together well, it was well produced and the album isn't a shameful addition to your collection whether you're a goth, a doomer, or an avid black metal fan. However, it did feel strained. As though they had come up with three decent songs, a few decent riffs and then decided to water it all down by spreading it through an entire ten songs. Had this been an EP it would have been brilliant.
This album did have some very good tracks on it. The three songs: Starlit Thoughts, Dream of Eternity and Exiled were three brilliant songs incorperating sorrow, anger and inner turbulance. However the brilliance ended there and the rest of the songs just feel flat. It's like those three songs were the only inspirations and the rest were just album fillers. Most of the sung vocals are weightless and annoying with little effort put in. Many of the riffs lack anything tasteful such as groove, atmosphere, intricate melodies or technical brilliance. Oh and believe me, you can expect a fair amount of cliche church organ use too.
As said in the title this album had so much potential that was clearly wasted.
If you don't mind spending an albums worth for three good songs then by all means this is for you. But this release will never stand up to the likes of Antestor, My Silent Wake, Virgin Black, Fearscape, Horde, Crimson Moonlight or any of the other christian doom//gothic/black metal giants. In my honest opinion your money would be better spent acquiring their releases instead.
Download@Mediafire
Band Merch
