vote
7.0
Closed between the underground walls of the London underground, the Under The Ashes-group in which ex and current members of decomposed, Crom Dubh and Dungeon, among the many-begin with “Sacrifices Heaped”, a short and resolute work that refuses compromises to embrace, with rigor and cognition, the tradition of British Death-Thrash. A declaration of belonging, clear and unequivocal, to a precise sound genealogy, with particular attention to those trajectories which, between the mid -eighties and the beginning of the ninety, mixed punk fury and more metal inclinations without excessive reverence for formalisms.
The reference to the sacrilege of “Behind the Realms of Madness” is not accidental, and not too thin. In fact, a substantial part of the disc develops on territories that resume the pounding and linear approach, but also that “border” tension that had made the first works of the Birmingham band as well as so distinctive: riffs that are chased at close range, a pressing but never really chaotic trend, the deliberate absence of each decorative element. Above all, the first part of the work insists on these coordinates, with every piece that develops with a close internal logic, with an almost percussive sense of the construction and an undoubted urgency in concatenating ideas.
When the band slows down, more massive guitar solutions emerge, built on an idea of groove that unequivocally refers to the blessing. In these moments, the sound becomes dense and ignorant, inviting headbanging in no uncertain terms. Of course, in some situations a certain predictability is perceived, but the consistency of the sound and the background intention maintain the whole.
However, the decisive passage takes place in the second half of the disc, with “Deus Vult” to act as a watershed. Here the tribute to the Bolt Thrower is clear: the martial incede, the war scan of the riffs, the solemn atmosphere built for accumulation rather than by contrast. But, beyond the reference, what is striking is the ability with which the quartet manages to channel that type of epicness without making it a caricature. The following songs continue on this more jagged line, looking for the direct clash less and more a pincer movement, almost narrative.
In front of these suggestions, it must be said that the identity of the Under The Ashes is, for now, still largely built around its own reference ratings. But there is a firm dignity in this attitude: there is no need to amaze, nor to forcefully update a language that the band still feels vital. The work works because it no longer claims than it offers, and does it consistently.
With seven songs and a duration of less than half an hour, the disc imposes itself as an honest and convincing business card. He does not need to explain or surprise, because he already has a safe voice in the way he is still at a precise legacy. And it is precisely in this lucidity that it finds its strength.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
