Ashes You Leave – The Cure for Happiness

Ashes You Leave come from Croatia, a place lesser known for its scene concerning metal music and even lesser known for its gothic metal scene. Given proof is that AYL have been releasing material/existing since 1996 and “The Cure for Happiness” being the title of their sixth album is in our hands and in our heads for good!

For some of you, that might be familiar with their first releases circulating around doom/death metal, here you’ll hear a much more mature version of them leaning towards a Doom/Gothic approach, since this is the path they’ve been following at their latest releases.

Practically, loyal to the genre’s cliches AYL really have a very good perception of their goal, which is melancholy and grief. Melodies and riffs that mourn, most of the times, combined with high pitched operatic female vocals and a few male brutal vocals. A violin “crying” here and there, inevitably bringing one of their top influences, My Dying Bride, on surface, although I have to admit that the first bands that came to my mind, were The Provenance and Madder Mortem.

Thankfully, not that much progressive (apart track “Reality Sad“) in the harmful sense of the term, AYL offer a fresh sounding record soundwise, with beautiful elements and not tiring arrangements. Heavy enough, not to be placed in the “too sweet-avoid” category, with an excellent production although sometimes sounding a bit digital to my ears.

If it wasn’t for the simple/bad English used in their lyrics’ themes and their text interpretations and the weird/heavy pronunciation of their vocalist Jade, I wouldn’t be surprised if AYL would face or even sit on the throne of this female fronted gothic /doom metal genre they’re serving. But I’m afraid this might take a little while for them, to replace Draconian, Madder Mortem, The Provence, Theatre of Tragedy etc.

“The Cure for Happiness” stands high amongst the best of the genre’s for all of you into this sound, which means you should check them out for sure! For the rest not familiar with this music, I’d recommend you first heard some of the above mentioned bands to get a good perception of what this is all about and then listen to the evolution through AYL’s music!