Ashes You Leave – The Cure For Happiness (2012)

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What better early X-mas gift can anybody ask for than the latest Ashes You Leave album titled “The Cure For Happiness”. Dropping this November 29th, 2012 through Rock’n’Growl, this eagerly awaited release is set to fill that void left in 2012 of an excellent Gothic Doom Metal release. Delivering nine tracks of pure melancholy and powerful emotions, this album is sure to keep the band’s legacy intact of excellent album that are only release when the band really feels they are done right.

Newly fronted by Giada “Jade” Etro, the band returns in full strength as they have managed to find another excellent vocalist that can lead their melancholic music. Wasting no time, she delivers a commanding performance in “Devil In Disguise”. In this amazing track the band nicely sets a melodic mood with their traditional violins and well-crafted keyboards. Jade’s vocals immediately gave us chills when listening to the song since it is very eerie how well they mix with the band’s sound and greatly enhance the atmosphere.

Remind us a bit of the band Silent Stream of Godless Elegy, “Only Ashes You Leaves” keeps the melancholy at the highest level with another very solemn track. The guitar work is very solid and the overall pace of this track is very Doomy, thanks to the drumming, and the powerful growls.  With a bit of a weird vibe, “For The Heart Soul and Mind” starts off a bit heavier than what one would expect, but it immediately transforms into another mournful anthem with the killer guitar solos and the determined vocals of Jade in the chorus section.

Things get a bit My Dying Bride-esque with the catchy “The Ever Changing”, but it is the bi-polar song “Meant to Stray” that feels a bit weird since the band suddenly changes between slow and melodic passages and more aggressive collections of riffs. The growls on this last track make it one of the heaviest songs they have written in their last few released. Our favorite track is the highly emotive “Summers End”, a very lush track with beautiful atmospheric passages and excellent vocal arrangements. The violins just kill us (in the best of ways) in such releases and Ashes You Leave have brilliantly perfected their use over the years.

Moving on, “Reality Sad” is another of their ‘more aggressive’ tracks that we can’t quite fully get into, but it provides a nice change of pace. “The Cure” mellows things down again, for a short duration of time with an acoustic piece. This last tranquil song is a perfect lead for the closer “..For Happiness” and its powerful riffs. This last track has lush violins and very well-crafted melodic sections where the vocals make their appearance. It is also quite heavy and probably the Death/Doomiest track in this release since it has a certain natural rawness to it.

Waiting for three years for “The Cure For Happiness” was quite worth the wait since this release is as good as “Songs of the Lost” that took seven years to complete. The band is at the top of their game and hopefully they can get more recognition with this release so we can get to see them touring outside of Croatia. If you are a huge fan of Gothic Doom Metal, this is by far the best release of the genre in 2012, so you can’t afford to miss it.

Band: Ashes You Leave Album: The Cure For Happiness
Label: Rock'n'Growl

Release: November 29th, 2012

Oficial Site myspace

Genre: Gothic/Doom Metal

Country: Croatia

Rating: 92/100
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