Band:	Ashes You Leave
Album:	Songs Of The Lost
Style:	Gothic doom metal
Release date:	October 12, 2009
A review by:	KwonVerge

01. Apathy Overdose
02. The Feast
03. Stranded
04. The Song Of The Lost
05. Every You Every Me [Placebo cover]
06. Taints
07. Losing Fate
08. Where The Pain Is
09. Soul Of Ice

Ashes You Leave has been a band that didn't leave me good impressions with their debut album, I recall finding it unispired and generic doom/death metal that couldn't work things out, ever since I never bothered to follow their course in the world of music. 2009's Songs Of The Lost managed to change my opinion, I felt like I was listening to a different band, both in inspirational and expressive factor but in terms of professionalism and sound as well, I could refer to this album as a small personal apocalypse and of course, a pleasant surprise to say the least. I wasn't expecting much and i found much more than I would probably believe I'd find lying in there.

The band's line-up has changed since their previous work, 2002's Fire, only 3 members from the first days have remained and 3 new came in, bringing a fresh air, one of them being the female singer, Tamara Mulaosmanovic, who deals with the piano and keyboard passages as well. The sound pathway they move upon has to be gothic metal with slight doom metal slides. They give you the impression as if they were a different band, a meaningful and necessary rebirth, had they changed their name as well Songs Of The Lost would have been a great debut, as for now, it is a very good 5th album that actually has a lot to say, compared only to their debut and solitary tracks from other releases.

Tamara has a beautiful voice, fragile and powerful through melody, a dual core that lends her emotional interpretion a strength of its own. Of course she's not alone in the vocal task, Berislav Poje offers some beautiful clean and melodic vocal lines and some dynamic grunts that unfold diversity in the already complex sound. The violin sounds heart-rending and adorns the compositions with a fragile veil, the keyboards and the piano enrich even more the soundscape with beauteous ideas whereas the heavy enough riffing or the more melodic/soloing/acoustic guitars along with the accurate rhythm section form the main structure of the songs.

The album consists of 9 compositions, one of them being a cover on Placebo's "Every You And Every Me", one might say that it's a methodical move for success or something, I say that the only thing that whispers it's a cover are the lyrics, they made it sound as if it was one of their own songs. And that's what I call a real cover. I like almost every single track in Songs Of The Lost, except for "Taints" which tires me a bit, so what i propose is to cherish its 44 minutes in one piece.

All in all, we're talking about a beautiful release that will please your ears with its fragile aura, if you're into gothic or female-fronted metal give it a chance, it won't disappoint you.