CD Review--Autumn to Ashes

Autumn To Ashes
Holding a Wolf By The Ears
Vagrant

Note to all you would-be rock scribes. When you’re reviewing a group fronted by the band’s drummer, have your earplugs handy. Drummers tend to crank up the volume and you don’t want premature hearing loss to hamper your career. Okay, maybe we’re generalizing here. Or maybe not. Take Autumn to Ashes for instance. Now wholly under the direction of singer, songwriter and drummer Francis Mark, they’re to subtlety what George W. Bush is to credibility. Indeed, Death Metal as a genre is alive and well within the tumultuous confines of Holding a Wolf By The Ears, the band’s fourth full-length opus and first since Mark took over the helm. His singing, or, more accurately, his spew, sounds like something akin to your roommate’s retching after an all night binge. That’s appropriate, considering the fact that the entire album seems more or less the aural equivalent of an especially merciless hangover. Credit the band for holding true to their hardcore credo, with opening assault “Deth Kult Social Club” initiating the strident, unrelenting outpour that continues unabated throughout the set as a whole. Never mind that it’s all but impossible to tell one tirade… err, track… from another. Then again, if it’s melody and nuance you’re after, From Autumn To Ashes aren’t about to provide the trajectory that gets you there. – Lee Zimmerman

Holding A Wolf By The Ears