Reduced To Ash - Conceit

Tracklist:-

1. Waste Cult

2. Horizons

3. Reflection

4. Growth

5. For Decay

6. Nihil

7. In This Decreation

8. Malice

9. The Black Cloud

10. The Setting Sun

11. Folly

I've written about a couple of bands from the Faroe Islands in recent months and melodic death metallers Reduced To Ash is the third and final band that I'm reviewing. All previous two have been very different with the doom/death of Hamferd and the folk/traditional melodic metal of Hamradun. The trio of Reduced To Ash started playing together in 2012 and released a demo a year later. in 2015 their debut album "Conceit" was released via Tutl Records. I think even Bjorn "Speed' Strid (of Soilwork fame) provided guest vocals on the album. 

As with the previous two Faroese bands I’ve featured here, Reduced To Ash has plenty of Scandinavian influence within their sound and their melodic death metal stands up well against the bigger names from Sweden. Album opener Waste Cult is a powerful modern number with great riffs. For trio they certainly have a big sound and the vocals are extremely strong, as are the rest of band. They go for the grandiose extended intro on Horizons and it works a treat. They expand their musical palette during the song as well, using some added progression and off-kilter rhythms. Reflection seems to contain everything that way good about modern metal, before it became overrun with Djent copyists. It’s catchy yet there’s plenty of heft throughout the rhythm section and guitars, with melodic leads tempering the atmosphere created by those harsh vocals. The pace and riffs continue into Growth, which has a great twin-guitar passage towards the end and feels really upbeat. I wanted to shy away for comparisons when writing this review, but you’ll hear similarities to bands like (Waking The Fallen-era) Avenged Sevenfold, Trivium and the aforementioned Soilwork, who’s vocalist Bjorn “Speed” Strid appears on For Decay with his unmistakable pipes and there are actual clean vocals in it too. Nihil has an air of thrash metal about it and the fact that you can hear the bass rumbling in the background is very ominous indeed. Melody aside, there are moment of true heaviness on “Conceit” and In This Decreation is one such moment. It certainly seems heavier, but then again it could just be me. There’s complexity flowing through Malice, which has been there throughout the record but hasn’t been as obvious until now. I guess that’s another trait of the band; having the ability to make their songs sound simple when they’re not. They grind their way through the opening section of The Black Cloud and the growls get ever deeper as well. Death metal with added blackness. The Setting Sun approaches things from a different angle, with subtle hints of doom and some angular textures too. Album closer Folly sounds a bit more laid-back. It’s an old-school instrumental ballad with some haunting chants that threaten to overthrow it. It’s definitely a nice way to end “Conceit”, which has been a joy to listen to. This record may be a couple of years old now but it really doesn’t matter when you discover music. Go and discover Reduced To Ash for yourself. You won’t regret it.

You can listen to Nihil via their soundcloud page below:-

You can buy "Conceit" via Tutl Records here - http://tutlrecords.com/

Reduced To Ash Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/reducedtoashband
Tutl Records Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/tutlrecords