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Ashen: Leave the Flesh Behind
Ashen are a formidable death metal act from Perth, Western Australia.
Leave the Flesh Behind is their 2nd full-length album, and follows their debut LP Ritual of Ash (2023) and the Godless Oath EP (2021). If you're into Old School Death Metal with a healthy amount of Swedish influence (and a bit of a modern twist?), you're onto a winner with this band.
The album gets underway with the opening track, "Devourer". After some short lived orchestration the track salutes with its main riff, full band sledgehammer, in all of its glory. God damn...this is without a doubt one of the best riffs & grooves you'll hear all year. The chunky, brutal, stomp of this track will have you headbanging your way through brick walls and pulling mean looking faces involuntarily. I'm floored by the production overall too-the band sounds absolutely enormous.
"Ancestral Gate" comes next and is another stone cold killer of a track. This one is a little more uptempo and has an epic feel; almost like we're Marching towards the (Ancestral) gates of hell. There are a few welcome twists and turns along the way too. Generally speaking, I love how Ashen manage to add some melodic sensibilities to the riffing and overall offering without ever compromising on the brutality. Their approach is like a menage e trois between Dismember, At the Gates and Bolt Thrower.
"Aeon" is a really fresh sounding track for this band. It's slow and sinister at times, and is heavy on the atmospheric and evil sounding elements. The track has a great riff and chord progression, but it is elevated by the rhythm section of Ben Mazzarol and Josh Harris who go to work creating nuance and added layers of interest in the arrangement.
Next up is the title track, "Leave the Flesh Behind". No doubt, this is one of the best tracks on the album and a great choice for the single release/video. Again, it showcases the band's ability to craft brutal tunes with some melodic sensibility in the riffing. Bloodbath vibes are strong with this one.
"Void Within" is centred around an evil chord progression carried at times by a triplet passage on the guitars. Mazzarols drum parts are once again a highlight here, serving and elevating the song particularly well.
At the halfway point of this album, there's lots to like and nothing much to be critical about. In a relatively short period of time, Ashen have really crafted a signature sound - the combination of mid-tempo stomping riffs that groove, and more frantic OSDM influenced uptempo sections. Interestingly they seem to choose to keep their tracks relatively concise; most of the tracks on here are in that 3 and a half minute range. I respect that they resist the temptation to drag the songs out for the sake of it.
"Ageless" is another killer track and one that will go down well in the live setting. It's cut from the same cloth as "Devourer" and I can imagine this will open side B on vinyl format in the same neck snapping manner.
"Reincarnate", "Infinite Sea" and "Severed" are all brilliant tracks too. I'm resisting the urge to do a full-blown track by track review here because I'm in danger of repeating the same, very positive critique around melody carried in the riffs, and the overall brutality. A lot of these tracks in this late album sequence seem to have a more elaborate compositional style, and feature a layering of guitar parts. Time will tell if these see the light of day in the band's live set, but I particularly love "Infinite Sea" for the way the vocals and arrangement coalesce. I'd also note how deep and brutal Richard Clements vocals are overall and through this section of the album. He's belting out his lows on here like something completely demonic.
"Blood Offering" closes the album in style. It's a dark and dirty track enhanced by the use of sound bites. It's one of the best tracks on the album, as you might well expect from an album closer.
Those that know Ashen will know they were formed by members from highly touted Perth bands including Vespers Decent, Darkenium, and Chaos Divine. Ashen may well surpass the legacy of all of these bands when all is said and done, such is the quality of their discography to date. Leave the Flesh Behind is a great album, and is up there with anything else I've heard from the OSDM style in 2025. Highly recommend.
Ashen is:
Josh Harris : Bass
Ben Mazzarol : Drums
Shannon Over : Guitars
Richard Clements : Vocals
Tracklisting:
1. Devourer
2. Ancestral Gate
3. Aeon
4. Leave the Flesh Behind
5. Void Within
6. Ageless
7. Reincarnate
8. Infinite Sea
9. Severed
10. Blood Offering
Added: July 3rd 2025 Reviewer: Chris Reid Score:     Related Link: Band @ Bandcamp Hits: 30 Language: english
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