Scatter the Ashes
““Devout/The Modern Hymn””
(Epitaph)
Here’s a good example of giving a band lots of chances to sink in. I hated Scatter to Ashes’ CD at first, sounding like a unholy mixture of Radiohead, The Cure, and whatever shitty big hair bands are cool these days (The Rapture, …Trail of Dead, Interpol, ugh, I hate typing out these names). With subsequent listens though, the originality of these songs shone through. The guitar work here is pristine, like Britpop on a razor’s edge, and the band has the ability to mix things up, diving headlong into a Refused-like fury and then slipping out a pool of ambient swirl. Scatter the Ashes are one of the few bands around today that can appeal to fans of many different styles of underground music. Quite frankly, I’m shocked at the sheer brilliance of this!
