Holding A Wolf By The Ears - From Autumn To Ashes > Reviews > From Autumn To Ashes - Holding A Wolf By The Ears.

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	lyrics, vocals, guitar pieces and bass and drums with different sounds throughout .
Disadvantages:	no acoustic sets, different sound to the band compared to their earlier stuff .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

If you are a fan of From Autumn to Ashes in Anyway i would recommend this Cd as a must have in your Cd stack, also if your a fan of the genre with other bands such as Haste the Day, Poison the Well, Cry for silence, Twelve Gauge Valentine and The Sleeping this will fit right in with your tastes.

This is album is the follow up to 'Abandon your Friends' which although a good album and with some good songs it was a bit of a let down compared to their earlier work of 'Too Bad Your Beautiful' and 'The Fiction We Live'. All of those albums can be seen as following the same line in musical direction with Fran Mark on drums and delivering excellent backing vocals with a haunting singing voice, Benjamin Perri delivering powerful vocals and Brian Deneeve and Jonathan Cox with some excellent guitar work and guitar solo's and Josh Newton giving a truly From Autumn To Ashes sound on bass. (Abandon your Friends Line up)

However this album bucks the trend and delivers a completely different direction for the band, Benjamin Perri has left after disagreements with the band and is replaced by Fran Mark coming off the drums to go to lead vocals and on this album gives excellent screaming vocals totally different to Ben Perris deeper voice but still totally recognisable as Fran Mark. Brian Deneeve and Josh Newton give some awesome examples of how a guitar and bass should be played respectively and with Fran Mark now on lead vocals they play a bigger part in Backing Vocals. Rob Lauritsen also comes in on guitar and Jeff Gretz does an excellent job of replacing Fran Mark on drums.

The album starts off with 'Deth Kult Social Club' and in true From Autumn To Ashes Style is straight in there with some beefy screaming from Fran Mark, the drums in the break downs are excellent and guitars deliver a truly power full performance and the break down after about two minutes will have even your gran throwing the horns in the air!

Next is 'On The Offensive' which kicks right in with an awesome guitar intro and has a brilliant riff all the way through the song that you'll be singing for days after, also some excellent singing vocals on the chorus. Then the song almost stops and comes right back in with powerful guitar build up and the vocals kick right back in again.

Third is 'Recounts and Recollections' which starts with awesome and remember able guitar riff to set the mood of the song and has an awesome screaming chorus by Fran mark also has good singing by all members and drumming that you cant help but nod to.

Forth is 'Daylight Slaving' with great build up by guitars and drums to have Fran Mark kick in with some great singing and lyrics, and a chorus you'll be mad not to sing to. Then has brilliant Guitar breakdown in a classic hardcore style with excellent double bass drumming and starts up with some high tempo screaming in great contrast with the rest of the song.

Number five on the album is 'Delusions of Grandeur' which comes in with a good drum piece and some great singing and lyrics and has a good chorus with powerful screaming and great guitar all the way through.

Sixth is 'Sensory Deprivation Adventure' which has a truly powerful start with a great guitar piece, also with a good singing chorus and a haunting vocals chilled out set in the middle adds so much more to the song and has a great lead in back to the vocals.

Seventh is 'Everything I Need' which after an excellent guitar intro and build up with drums gives a brilliant screaming solo of the title and then the song really kicks in with intense screaming vocals and a great guitar riff in the background, great chorus too. And then after a short breakdown hits into a great guitar solo which fits right in with the song.

Eighth is 'Underpass Tutorial' which has a short sound effect part at the start and then hits in with a powerful guitar part, which changes style to give way for the singing chorus. about halfway through the high tempo and powerful guitars give way to a slow tempo simplified part to break up the song.

Ninth track is 'Love it or Left it' and starts with a great guitar and drum combo with great vocals kicking in which calms to give way to some great singing vocals and then has some great double singing and screaming vocals over the top of each other which adds a great depth to the song, which breaks down to an awesome screaming part with drum bass kicking all the way through. Ends with great powerful guitar riffs to go with the drumming and bass.

Track ten is 'Travel' which starts with a great bass riff, drums and them bit of guitar strumming with great high tempo vocals and guitar piece which increases for the screaming on the build up for the chorus and drifts off for the ending.

Eleventh is 'A Goat in sheep's Rosary' which starts with a drum build up and has distorted vocals at the start giving way to a great screaming part ended with a talking set, and good chorus screaming and vocals and gives way to a greatly powerful three part guitar riff which makes the song for me. ends with a bit of piano and a talking recording which is a good end to the song.

Last but not least is twelve 'Pioneers' which starts off with a good drum and bass kicks and a nice bit of high cord guitar work which gives way to a screaming set and guitar riffs all the way through with the same high cord guitar piece at intervals throughout, then with a bass and drum breakdown with a good talking and screaming part to break up the song it adds more to the song especially when the chorus kicks in again to take it to the end.

Over all this is a great Hardcore genre album with great guitar, drum, bass and vocals which give it a great all round effort. Also this album comes with some absolutely great lyrics to go with the songs and adds a great depth to the album which is a bit lacking in some bands of the same genre. Also has some truly recognisable songs and guitar pieces to give each song its own sound.

Some downsides could be that there are no acoustic sets in this album or in any of the songs which there has been in most of the previous albums, also with Benjamin perri not on vocals and with no one brought in to replace him on the powerful and deep screaming side of things this album does give a different sound to From Autumn To Ashes Which is not in keeping with their earlier work.

Over all I would highly recommend this album to anyone who is a fan of From Autumn To Ashes, the hardcore genre or wants to get into this genre. Thumbs up!!

Also nine tracks off the album can be heard on their myspace - www.myspace.com/fromautumntoashes