Scatter The Ashes – Devout / The Modern Hymn

Epitaph Records is a well known label. They are one of the leading independent record labels around and their roster has some of the top names in the punk rock scene. Lately the label has been straying off course and has started signing some bands deviating from the so called “Epitaph” sound. One of these bands is Scatter The Ashes. The Nashville spawned quartet plays a time of screamo/emo/punk/rock sound, which isn’t anything special.

The ten track debut, Devout / The Modern Hymn is a somewhat disappointing release. Each song seems to be dragged on pointlessly and there really isn’t anything that really captures your attention throughout the album. Practically the only songs that are really worth a listen is the second last track, Christine Daae, and the album closer, Hour Benediction. Scatter The Ashes try to do too much, and don’t really complete any of it. The vocals are dispersed unevenly for the most part and don’t really connect together. The music is so different too, changing from screamo to mellow, to fast and hard hitting to slow and sleepy. They are just as their bio says, they defy easy categorization; but in this case that’s not a good thing.

My description may not be the best one there is and I should probably go deeper into it. But that would mean I would have to listen to the album some more, and I’m really not up to that right now.