Ashen Hands
Photo Credit 📷 : @ashen_hands
Dissonance, quick tom fills, stop, go. It’s a recipe that we all know and love. It’s a cherished, time honored tradition for bands cut from the metallic tinged cloth. It’s New Music Monday today and we’re debuting Circuiti by Ashen Hands, an absolutely punishing new emoviolence band from Italy.
When the bass slides into the rest of the song there is a brief moment of respite before we’re pummeled with blastbeats and ripping guitars. Ashen Hands nods to the crust punks of the world with a change into mid-tempo d-beat before transitioning into yet ANOTHER riff. There is almost an element of surprise as the band dance from section to section. About halfway through the track you can tell this is a band owning their influences, Neil Perry and Love Lost Forgotten stick out, this is the contemporary version of Level Plane bands. But fans of bands like Converge, Robotosauraus, and Battle of Wolf 359 would do well to check this out.
As the band would tell you, “we are just four punks” but they’ve put together an impressive debut single. Supporting the band in the studio, Riccardo “Pelle” Pellegrini helmed the recording and production. Mastering was shipped off to the legendary Will Killingsworth, a household name in the screamo scene and heavy music communities alike. The band is also quick to note that Circuiti is “a starting point for our sound, the newer songs that we are writing are already very different.” For a band that hoped to bang out some tracks, have fun and just play some shows, they’ve put together a killer track and the upcoming debut is sure to crush.
The songs are written in Italian, which should come as no surprise. The lyrics take inspiration from movies, books, and other images. Conceptually there is a theme to Circuiti that is profoundly eerie. The perpetual advancement of technology, particularly Artificial Intelligence, and its consumption of our digital fingerprint is truly terrifying. The notion that even in the event of your untimely death some server in a data center is masquerading as you.
Enough already, enjoy this track.
The forthcoming collection of songs from Ashen Hands will be put out by Tomb Tree, My Back Hurts Records, Khya Records, and Dingleberry Records on March 14th.
Catch them in their home town of Bologna on March 23rd at the Freakout Club. Check out the debut and read the lyric sheet for Circuiti below.
English:
Losing someone who still seems alive online, as much as everyone else around us. Only what has been remains of him, now food for algorithms and AI.
Clinging with the teeth to the electric wires I won’t be abandoned ever again / By no one / My crushed face crumples in the pitch darkness of the room / I can't grasp what's left of your body / A wire for every vein / I break a finger in your memory / Burned into the screen / They still devour your body / Swallowing every one of your mistakes / Your shape / a vague memory lost forever / Clinging with my teeth to electric wires I will never be alone again / Here for me you are still alive
Italian:
Perdere una persona che sembra ancora viva online, tanto quanto tutte le altre persone attorno a noi. Ma di lui rimane soltanto ciò che è stato, ormai cibo per algoritmi e AI.
Aggrappato con i denti ai fili elettrici non sarò mai più abbandonato / Da nessuno / Il mio viso rotto si accartoccia nel buio pesto della stanza / Non riesco ad afferrare ciò che resta del tuo corpo / Un cavo per ogni vena / Mi spezzo un dito in tuo ricordo / Impresso nello schermo / Mangiano ancora il tuo corpo / Ingoiano ogni tuo sbaglio / La tua figura / un vago ricordo perso per sempre / Aggrappato con i denti ai fili elettrici non sarò più solo / Qui per me sei ancora vivo
Ashen Hands is Francesco on vocals, Alessandro on guitar, Marco on Bass and Will on Drums.
