Ashes – Review

Ashes

(Network Sounds)
by Aaron Dalbec

Emotion-packed music with a little twist. Ashes takes hardcore to a new extreme with a female singer. They hail from Maryland, and have been around for a couple of years. They consist of Jack Rader on bass, Matt Squire on drums, Brian Mcternan on guitar, and Elena Richie on vocals. I think what makes me like them so much, other than the music itself, is that they aren’t afraid to do what they want. When they were in Boston a couple of months ago, we were talking and Brian said, “Sometimes people say things because we have a girl singing. We don’t care who it is, we’ll stick up for her.” They have recently released a 7″ out on Network Sounds, and just put it out on CD with bonus tracks from their demo. When I was talking to them, they also were saying that they were coming out with a new full length LP soon on New Age Records. I had a chance to listen to it, and it’s unbelievable. I didn’t think that they could get any better, but they proved me wrong. Also another band to look out for is Grip from Virginia. They are doing some shows with Ashes, so keep an out for them.