From Autumn To Ashes

Upon initial listens to FATA's full-length debut, Too Bad You're Beautiful, it seems like FATA are desperately searching for an identity to call their own, combining a spate of disparate influences in hopes of creating a unique sound. However, upon subsequent investigations, FATA's numerous styles and influences coalesce into a remarkable whole, making for an incredibly moving album of beauty and aggression by a unit unafraid to tackle anything in its path. Heavily based in both the melody, intricacy and brutality of Swedish death and thrash metal (At The Gates, In Flames), FATA mix it with some of the most heart-wrenching emotional passages to ever be shed, metallic hardcore aggression and superbly crafted songs. While the melding of these influences in itself isn't unique, it's with the proficiency and ability to delve wholeheartedly into whatever style they're playing at the moment and effortlessly switch to another that initially fragments FATA's sound, but in the end it is that proficiency that unites it. Unafraid to unleash an acoustic ballad ("Chloroform Perfume"), progressive emotional metallic hardcore (opener "The Royal Crown vs. Blue Duchess") or Gothenburg-inspired death metal with an acoustic break ("Capeside Rock"), From Autumn To Ashes succeeds in creating something breathtaking at every turn. However, it is with the epic finale "Short Stories With Tragic Endings" that FATA truly eclipse themselves. Utilising a violin for added depth, female vocals providing a stark contrast and soaring emotional riffing that switches back and forth between lamenting and venting, the song eventually collapses under the weight of its on pathos only to build to a tumultuous and painfully beautiful climax, driven by guest vocalist Melanie Wills' lilting vocals. With Too Bad You're Beautiful, FATA have crafted an album of immense emotional depth, one that is as brutal as it is beautiful and as painful as it is artistic.