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What do you get when you cross 4/5 of German hardcore legends Miozän with the singer from German metallers Gloryful? Fucking Ash Return that’s what. The musical equivalent of finally getting out of lockdown mode and dashing to your local pub, ordering four pints and necking them one after the other in quick succession, then sticking Motorhead on the jukebox and cranking the sucker up.
Imagine if you will, Iron Maiden with hardcore sensibilities, or for arguements sake, Bruce Dickinson fronting a hardcore band. Ramp that up one thousand fold and you get Ash Return. The fury and aggression from a old-school hardcore band mixed with the trademarks of Maiden; melodic guitars, machine-gun bass (especially on ‘Onwards’), speeding drums (‘Rest In Peace’) and air-raid siren vocals. It’s really as simple as that. Need an example? Exhibit A m’lords; ‘Time Is The Enemy’. Three minutes of joyful Maiden-influenced aggro.
4/5 of Miozän (Tank, Kniffel, Gerrit and Outso) recruiting Johnny La Bomba from Gloryful, with the end result being Ash Return and their poleaxing debut album ‘The Sharp Blade Of Integrity’. An album that sinks its teeth in during the opening strains of ‘One’ and doesn’t let go until the last strains of ‘Rest In Peace’ fades out some thirty-odd minutes later. ‘Drown In Tears’ for instance begins like a Maiden b-side then the drums and vocals come in and all hell breaks loose. La Bomba is metal through and through (well, he has to be with a name like that), and easily alternates between screams, hardcore and power metal workouts. The change in pace where the band slows it down to steamroller pace is what seperates the men from the boys. The kind of track that should be mandatory listening to any wannabe band out there who needs a lesson in controlled aggression.
The pace on the album never lets up and there is no danger of it overstaying its welcome. But for all it’s aggression and ferocity, the tracks on offer are extremely catchy. While one half of the crowd will be starting a pit, the other will be raising their steins in triumph as they bellow out the words to ‘F.T.W’, just one of numerous massive sing-a-longs on the album, but perhaps the most timely.
‘The Sharp Blade Of Integrity’ is the perfect album for these fucked up times. It’s Wez in Mad Max 2, just as he’s released from the chains holding him back from unleashing hell, only to go on and unleash hell.
Available 1st May on Swell Creek Records
Review – Dave
