{"id":358569,"date":"2025-08-20T04:50:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T04:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/358569\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T04:50:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T04:50:10","slug":"ashen-leave-the-flesh-behind-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/358569\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashen – Leave the Flesh Behind Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Australian death metal troupe Ashen<\/strong> impressed me back in 2023, but not because their debut record Ritual of Ash<\/a> was an especially good or groundbreaking record. Instead, their confident presentation, deceptively impactful songwriting structures, and subtly distinct approach to a weathered style of death metal struck me as a rare case. Where many acts that pedal peddle an HM-2 or adjacent style of death metal content themselves with base reproduction of common idols, Ashen<\/strong> merely use their influences as a foundation for their own voice. With more time to massage their songwriting further and strengthen their identity, Ashen<\/strong> prepare sophomore monster Leave the Flesh Behind, and it\u2019s big.<\/p>\n

Simple songwriting predicated on strict formulas leads to treacherous places riddled with pitfalls. Monotony, boredom, lack of identity, flatness, and toothlessness characterize countless records written by bands unprepared to navigate these pitfalls, but Ashen<\/strong> swerve and swivel around many of them. Of course, those familiar with Entombed<\/strong><\/a>, Dismember<\/strong>, or more modern acts like Wombbath<\/strong><\/a> and Helslave<\/strong><\/a> are bound to hear a familiar thread connecting Leave the Flesh Behind to the classic HM-2 sound and style. But with each of those categories, Ashen<\/strong> tweak and twist it with a gentle hand into a gnarled form, curling mid-paced stomps into knotty tangles of deceptively sophisticated riffs and mammoth grooves. Darker still than Ritual of Ash, Leave the Flesh Behind feels thoroughly ominous, dangerous, and unstoppable. Thanks to a production job that highlights the low end and scoops the midrange just a touch, Ashen<\/strong>\u2019s sound creates a wide and airy soundstage. On it, Ashen<\/strong>\u2019s crushing footfalls reverberate though the air with all the menace of an unearthly beast, heard but not seen.<\/p>\n

Leave the Flesh Behind by ASHEN<\/a><\/p>\n

As is the case with many records in my library, Leave the Flesh Behind\u2019s title track is the perfect encapsulation of what Ashen<\/strong> do best. Mid-paced, but vicious, riffs richly layered in dark harmonies flood my synapses, compelling my neck to swing with a violence it was not designed to withstand. So satisfying is this track, in fact, that since my first spin, I haven\u2019t been able to progress through this tight 39-minute runtime without spinning \u201cLeave the Flesh Behind\u201d at least twice. Similarly effective, \u201cAncestral Gate\u201d and closer \u201cBlood Offering\u201d deal an effortless percussive swagger that contorts the muscles in my face into something grotesque and inhuman. Slower, moodier highlights like \u201cInfinite Sea\u201d and \u201cSevered\u201d showcase Ashen<\/strong>\u2019s talent for off-kilter rhythms inside conventional time signatures and melody-driven, doomed riffs that nonetheless bare an intimidating spread of teeth. Best of all, Leave the Flesh Behind doesn\u2019t wander even when it does slow things to a dying crawl, as vocal lines take center stage to add interest in much the same way Rotpit<\/strong><\/a>\u2018s did on Let There Be Rot.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As successful as Leave the Flesh Behind\u2019s strongest moments are, some of what lies between doesn\u2019t live up to its potential. None of these weaker moments heavily detract from the album experience individually. Rather, they accumulate. Most of this accumulation occurs at the center of the record, populated by a run of three songs between \u201cVoid Within\u201d and \u201cReincarnate.\u201d These lack the same verve and vitality of the songs bookending them, and could use sharper hooks. While competent on their own, the consequent drop in excitement and thereby momentum creates a stagnation where a burst of new life is needed instead. Passages in each song have the potential to resolve that issue had they been developed differently (see the deep trem-picked rumble in the final third of \u201cVoid Within,\u201d or the Morbid Angel<\/strong><\/a> riffing meets Rotpit<\/strong> slime in \u201cAgeless\u201d), but as they are they can\u2019t carry their respective numbers to the finish line.<\/p>\n

Overall, Leave the Flesh Behind is a modest improvement on the already good Ritual of Ash, and a significant indicator of greater things still to come. Ashen<\/strong> strike me as a band that value continuous improvement, but also steady and controlled development. I\u2019m not an especially patient man, but when I pick up hints of greatness from bangers like \u201cLeave the Flesh Behind\u201d and \u201cAncestral Gate,\u201d I\u2019m more than happy to wait for that special moment when Ashen<\/strong> drop a monstrous mastapeece. As far as I\u2019m concerned, it\u2019s only a matter of time.<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> Good!
DR:<\/strong> 7 | Format Reviewed:<\/strong> 320 kb\/s mp3
Label:<\/strong> Redefining Darkness Records<\/a>
Websites:<\/strong> ashendeath.bandcamp.com<\/a> | facebook.com\/ashendeath<\/a>
Releases Worldwide:<\/strong> August 22nd, 2025<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian death metal troupe Ashen impressed me back in 2023, but not because their debut record Ritual of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[743,12933,126170,113326,28032,12936,105920,77,126171,126172,126173,126174,269,126175,6080,6082,126176,16,15,126177],"class_list":{"0":"post-358569","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-743","9":"tag-3-0","10":"tag-ashen","11":"tag-aug25","12":"tag-australian-metal","13":"tag-death-metal","14":"tag-dismember","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-entombed","17":"tag-helslave","18":"tag-leave-the-flesh-behind","19":"tag-morbid-angel","20":"tag-music","21":"tag-redefining-darkness-records","22":"tag-review","23":"tag-reviews","24":"tag-rotpit","25":"tag-uk","26":"tag-united-kingdom","27":"tag-wombbath"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115059296045213529","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}