Necromag.co.uk

Ashes Divide is the new release by ex-APC guitarist and all round nice guy Billy Howerdel. This album was released on April 8th and it has been kept rather quiet over the airwaves in the UK. Let’s face it, A Perfect Circle were good for 2 reasons, one of them was Billy’s musicianship, the other was Maynard’s vocals and songwriting, and it is obvious by listening to this that one cannot be complete without the other. This album is a very well-produced, very rich sounding album, a testament to Mr Howerdel and his place in the rock world as a fantastic musician. His vocals on this album are very haunting and ethereal, but lack any of the memorable hooks or quirks that Perfect Circle were capable of. The album tries hard to establish its own identity, but it is bloody near impossible to do so when almost every ex-member of said band is present and accounted for at some point, save Maynard. Drum god Josh Freese provides brilliantly executed beats which remind one of a similar, yet much better release, of “Cruel Melody” by Wes Borland’s Black Light Burns last year.

A couple of tracks stand out as note-worthy. First single “The Stone” contains a lot of the dark yet very accessible elements that Billy’s guitar brings. “Deframed” is probably one of the catchier songs on the album, as well as final track “Sword.” Aside from this, basically a lot of the songs sound exactly the same. Worst of all, a couple of songs sounds sound a bit like 30 Seconds To Mars.

I would love to recommend this, but it really doesn’t do enough to warrant anything more than a brief nod.

Sorry Billy.

[OxKing]