EP REVIEW: Our Saints Drown In Ash – Your Spirit Dies

YOUR SPIRIT DIES are hardly the first band to throw their weight behind the argument that metalcore was better in the beginning. The South Carolina quintet’s 2020 debut EP The Process Of Grief slotted in very neatly beside the work of bands like RENOUNCED and CAULDRON to make a solid case for taking the genre back to its roots in the late 90s, and to be honest Our Saints Drown In Ash does much the same.

Of course, given that the band’s central argument is that metalcore had the formula right ages ago, no-one really should have been expecting them to mess with it too much here. Had it come out a couple of decades earlier, there’s no doubt Our Saints Drown In Ash would’ve sat on the very same shelves as classic records from the likes of POISON THE WELL, ZAO and KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, and while questions of legacy and originality are obviously far more complicated than those of pure sonic similarity, the band can receive no less than full marks for their command of the genre’s essentials.

With that in mind you probably won’t need loads of detail here to know what to expect from Our Saints Drown In Ash. YOUR SPIRIT DIES mete out quite the beating across these 16 and a half minutes, their primary tools of tight metallic chugs and melodeath-infused riffing invariably sharpened by the scorched rasp of vocalist Brandon Byars. Opener …And They Came With Seven Heads has a bit more of an atmospheric intro, there’s a huge KILLSWITCH-esque melodic turn in second track Sacrosanct which turns an already stand out song into quite easily the pick of the bunch, and Canto XIII provides a brief interlude of layered synths and quiet prayers, but other than that this record remains focused on and arguably defined by ferocity alone.

Perhaps the only clue to Our Saints Drown In Ash‘s origins in the present day is the beefier production courtesy of END guitarist Greg Thomas – a sensible choice that ensures YOUR SPIRIT DIES’ punches land just as well as any of their modern contemporaries. It may be a minor point for those who are already happy enough with the rawer edges of the aforementioned classics, but it does prove one thing: YOUR SPIRIT DIES aren’t messing around at all here. Their sound may take them a long way on nostalgia alone but they clearly don’t plan on stopping there. Our Saints Drown In Ash might not be the great metalcore course corrector some of us think the genre needs, but as long as the band keep making records like it then you can count on them winning over at least a few more converts to the old ways.

Rating: 8/10

Our Saints Drown In Ash is set for release on December 2nd via Acrobat Unstable Records/The Coming Strife Records.

Like YOUR SPIRIT DIES on Facebook.