Review Summary: Less exciting than a power outage.
This is one hell of a time to play nu-metal.
The New York Times recently profiled the sub-genre, along with its’ Gen Z converts. The Sick New World festival doled out each and every one of its tickets to an eager, JNCO-clad fanbase. Limp Bizkit rocked Lollapalooza. Modern groups like Tallah, Ded, and Tetrarch recapture the jumpthe***up rage of the Sickness days.
Thus, From Ashes To New’s failure to do anything substantial with
Blackout is even harder to swallow. The group’s initial bastardized mix of early-00s rap-rock and mid-00s metalcore sufficed. Yet, since debut
Day One, the PA rap-rockers lost much of their passion and danger. The replacement of their grittier singer with a creamier one doesn’t help. Neither do the encroaching pop/alt-rock influences.
So,
Blackout exacerbates the decline of a once enjoyable band. To be sure, there are pieces of this record that work. When FATN flex their strengths—bouncy riffs, urgent raps, chaotic breakdowns, glitchy synth lines, and whopping choruses—the result is a joyous bout of nostalgia. Tracks like “Nightmare” and “Dead To Me” are album bests. Their angst-wrought lyrics are generic but delivered with enough sonic ferocity to resonate.
The band fails to maintain said ferocity, though. Instead, they lumber and languish through several mid-tempo, alt-rocky snoozefests. “Hate Me Too” has a nice riff, but it is little different from “Crazy”, the band’s pop-punky radio hit from their second album. The choruses are quite similar, the vibes are near identical, and both songs reek of cheap pizza and hometown loathing. There’s the same story of a broken relationship—albeit with new, cringy drug references ("the love never works/like the cocaine does"). Opener “Heartache” idles in first gear. It begs to burn barns but fails to ignite more than a few dying embers. These types of songs are not a small part of the record, either. Indeed, the title “Blackout” is appropriate—in reference to the listener's induced nap.
In fact, From Ashes To New’s hesitancy to showcase their nu-metal tendencies damns the better moments. The breakdown in “Hope You’re Happy” is comparatively thrilling, but far too little, far too late. “Monster In Me” has a fantastic riff, great tempo, aggressive screams, and the most interesting hip-hop all record. But it doesn’t quite rip out the jugular, even though it feels like it wants to.
From Ashes To New want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to dread their hair and tune down to Drop B for some rowdy pitting. They want to get lighters up and hands in the air just as much, if not more. What’s left is an awkward case of competent musicians doing little more than the bare minimum. They bank on catchy choruses, glossy production, and powerful nostalgia to cover ground. Linkin Park certainly weren’t death metal, but their early works hit much harder than this. You could always
Blackout, but you are better off napping.
