(Contributor’s Note: Jason Hobel, vocalist for Back From Ashes, gave me his time last year to talk with him about a number of different subjects. I imagine he is as great in person as he was on the phone. His pride in Back From Ashes is unparalleled, and the respect he has for all their fans and his band mates knows no bounds. This band is a metalhead’s dream in the difference it brings to a tough music industry)

Back From Ashes and their second full-length album, “261″ (released late 2010), bring you thrashy and beautifully melodic riffs from guitarists Mike Butikofer and Anthony DeJesus, killer basslines provided by David DiGilio, excellent skill on the skins from a few different names: Dan Johnson, Jimmy Bones, and Dwayne Dedrick (I believe the band is looking for a more permanent drummer), and one of the most well-ranged and passionate vocalists in Independent music today, Jason Hobel. You wanna know how their second album is? Check it out.

‘When You Fall’ starts off with a nice, easy acoustic guitar session for about 15 seconds, some cymbal work, double bass playing, and rhythm guitar bring you into a badass lead solo before hitting you with the whole band exploding into this song’s thrash-like sound. Hobel growls his way into a powerful first lyric with backing vocals from the rest of the guys. “I cannot take the weight of the World…on my shoulders.” The band gets real gritty going into their second verse, with a killer sound that can only remind me of Kreator. Awesome lead-off song if there ever was one. ‘Walk Away’ pretty much hits you in the face. You can feel the speed influence flinging the listener into how intensely they want you to feel them. Incredible guitar playing by Butikofer and De Jesus. This song gives you a taste of what Hobel is capable of doing behind the mic with his range. Headbanging to this one feels almost mandatory.

‘Tightrope’ feeds your ears with a little bit different sound at the very beginning, with some drum and bass work then Hobel giving you a very quick growling lyric about hanging from a tightrope before the whole bands smacks the shit outta you to bring you into their sound. Just when you think one of their songs might sound alike with any of the others, this song will make you realize each are unique and absolutely their own with many descriptions being said that they cannot be put into one category. At about 2:37, the music slows, Hobel gives a background growl/slash yell while the rest of the band members are bringing the listener another slap. “This is my life. I feel nothing. This is my life. I feel nothing.” A different influence to their music is heard in the form of ‘Truth’. There are subtle sounds of some background synth, and a lot of sound of some of the heavier ’80s bands being heard. The whole song brings a smoother hard rock sound infused with the hardness BFA knows how to do. At about 3:16, a beautifully melodic guitar solo is played. Very cool.

Then you get ‘The Suffering Within’, a new age version of what I would personally call an extreme power ballad. You get all the essence that an old school power ballad brings – soft vocals with breaks into great growls and screams, slower rhythms, acoustics with breaks into hardcore jamming. Another way BFA can show and prove their dedication to each and every form of music that influenced the band members individually. ‘Pull The Trigger’ gives the listener what sounds like a couple of the band members getting a taste behind the mic growling their vocals. It hits your eardrums hard right off the bat and keeps that feeling through the whole song. “Pull the trigger. You’re already dead to me. There’s no more falling down again” pretty much sums up what I’d say to an ex.

‘The Verge of Consequence’ is a 1 minute 41 second soothing, synth-induced instrumental laced with some churchy, yet creepy, bells that all lead up to ’20/20 Blind’. All metalcore means to me is thrash metal in the new millennium. I grew up fully encapsulated with thrash metal. ’20/20 Blind’ brings all that old school thrash into the metalcore genre and how true HEAVY metal should sound. You get every single instrument blasting you hard and ferocious vocals ripping you apart in every good way imaginable. Excellent musicianship. The momentum and strength of ’20/20 Blind’ flows and brings you into an immediate heavy-hitting song called ‘Misery’. One of my personal favorites on the album (it’s hard to pick ONLY one), the guitar riffs are absolutely amazing, and the anger with which Hobel projects his lyrics is intense to the very last note of the song. If none of the other songs have brought any feeling to you, this one will. Amazing.

‘Welcome To Me’ and ‘Seed’ round out this “metalhead’s dream” of an album. ‘Welcome To Me’ hits you with everything the whole album has been doing – beautiful and killer guitar riffs and basslines, out of this world percussion, and intense vocals. A complete mix of everything the band does right, does together, and does well. “Welcome to me now. Welcome, welcome to my hell.” Fuck yes. The band’s finale on “261″ takes a dramatic turn. ‘Seed’ is a completely unexpected sound. I say this from the perspective of it being a fucking fantastic way for this band of badasses to show that they can turn it down a notch, but still hit you with what they feel in a totally different way than what the rest of the album sounds like. Two thumbs up from me on this song. Starting you off with some acoustic guitar, and then you hear Jason Hobel, a softer Jason, who comes in almost not sounding like the same vocalist. You might even think, “No way.” But, oh hell yes. They put an echo after he sings each line that adds to the song’s message. At about 39 seconds, a piano comes into the mix, giving the listener more reason to really listen. “Would you really wait for…a sick man whose only as sick as you make him, sick of you making him. Wandering lost with your claws in his side, and your words in his head. He’ll soon be a memory.” Absolutely beautiful. After this lyric, the whole band goes electric with an orchestra playing in the background. Hobel still sings softly, but you get some back-up vocals from the other band members. Their voices blend so well into the whole sound of the orchestra. The only growl you get is at about 4:17, near the end of the song, the final words of it, “The sickness is your SEEEEEEED!”

From beginning to end, “261″ is a raucous, ass-kicking, metal throwdown to those of us who can appreciate where we came from and how it is being played in today’s music. Back From Ashes knows the best way to do this – with similar backgrounds as most of us, listening to what is exactly right to them, and an affinity to put music out that all metal lovers will dig the hell out of. Like several Independent bands, BFA have a loyal following but deserve a broader range of listeners. Check out some of their accomplishments: 2009 LA/Phoenix Music Awards – Winner of Producer’s Choice Modern Rock Band Of The Year award and Video of the Year award (Suffering Within), Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Band of the Year, nominated for Best Rock Band of the Year. A Grammy nom in 2010. The list goes on.

The band is currently working on their third studio album (they are constantly working on new material of course), as of yet unnamed and nothing confirmed, but I am in extreme hopes this baby comes out this year. I need some more writing material, and this is one band I enjoy and am honored to write about, even if it took so long to review it.  Purchase the album from their website by clicking here, and please be sure to “SPREAD THE ASHES!!!”

(Update: Since this writing, Jason Hobel was on a radio broadcast on renegaderadio.net and brought up a couple other things happening with the band. One thing is that they have possibly signed a deal with Avenged Sevenfold’s label out of Japan, an OFFICIAL video for their song “Welcome To Me” is going to be premiered at the beginning of an upcoming Hollywood movie, and their producer, Ryan Greene, wants them to cut a new single and release it within the next couple months. Congratulations to the whole band, Ryan Greene, and Yvonne Laughlin for all this awesome news)