“There’s just the street and the game, and what happened here today.”
2025 was the year that Boolin Tunes firmly aligned itself with the MySpace deathcore revival. While the biggest release in the genre didn’t activate many of our (largely dormant) neurons, we were thoroughly treated to a slew of incredible work from PSYCHO-FRAME, Molotov Solution, Mauled, Coma Witch, and Corpse Pile (my goodness, my co-editor Shane has been busy). It’s not to say we don’t like our deathcore with a few synthesised strings here and there – there were also great releases from Crown Magnetar, Shadow Of Intent, and Despised Icon. Furthermore, we must accept that all metal is very camp and theatrical; there’s a right flavour for everyone, whether your approach is extended keyboard intros or detuning your snare. But there’s theatrical deathcore (frowning, shaking head) and theatrical deathcore (grinning, nodding).
Last year, Federal Death Alliance’s EP Leave No Trace of Human Life felt like electrocution through an ‘08 Skullcandy headset. The project minces various strains of deathcore and choice elements of hardcore to form the basis of their sound. With plenty of gratuitous pauses for vocal domination, they also let guitars fly free across the high frets for ridiculous sweep runs, and use samples with reckless abandon. The package earned them a spot on our coveted ones to watch list and left us all eager for their next steps. We haven’t needed to wait long, as this week they drop another five tracks in the form of Ashen Paradise.
The formula introduced by Leave No Trace of Human Life isn’t broke, so Ashen Paradise has nothing to fix and everything to conquer. Kicking off with “Hell Shall Inherit The Earth”, the opening few seconds are a drum fill that introduces the main actor, the all-important deathcore snare. Like the Pierce & Pierce boardroom comparing their business cards, it was never meant to be a competition, but here we fucking are. This one sounds like they sampled it from a passing ambulance so that the Doppler shift gives it a natural wobble. The guitar riff that gallops in rips a run across the whole fretboard before ignorantly slamming those delicious low notes. New listeners will notice the dual-vocal approach that’s going on, though the only credited singer is John Pronesti – he’s simply very versatile and willing to do what it takes to make every moment delicious and detailed. The first moment that will really make you cackle hits at one minute fifteen, where a gratuitous pause and a Pronesti gurgle begets an unreasonably catchy low tempo riff. But they don’t rest on their laurels, throwing it to two hundred plus BPM moments later to keep the song moving.
This penchant for chaos, through sliding tempos and impressive diversions, never lets up across the record. Title track “Ashen Paradise” rips a “fuck you”, then becomes peppered with ultra-Bri’ish Ronald Kray samples. “No One Will Save You Here” brings attitude riffs and (probably) the fastest sweeps on the EP. Closer “Subdued in Ruin” is another tour de force that includes a fantastic blackened segment and yet more wince-inducing slowdowns. If there are any changes, perhaps it’s a drift away from hardcore moments and a double-down on the mathcore elements (but, rest assured, there’s nothing clever about Ashen Paradise).
The idea of the ‘breakdown’ connects almost all modern ‘core metal and has done so for about twenty years. Unless you are playing lights-on hardcore where simplicity is the point, songwriters have to be careful that it doesn’t become phoned in. Federal Death Alliance always keep things interesting, as their songs are covered segments that are conceivably breakdowns, yet not one feels stagnant. These moments morph into new segments much sooner than you might expect, either kicking off a speedy riff to keep the song churning or deepening their chokehold on the tempo to drop you further into hell. The sense of relentlessness is essential – we must feel the eye of the sniper always moving towards a new target. The greatest example is the most gut-busting moment of the record, at the close of “Origins of Decimation”. After circle pit riffs and bass drops galore, the music drops out to leave only the scrapiest guitars, lighting up each ear in turn with a pattern that carries an air of inevitability. Pronesti then gives his best guttural yet: “I’ll burn everybody till [utterly incomprehensible]” to set off a precise yet brutal breakdown, which feels like a micro-song in and of itself.
Ashen Paradise feels like a high-definition portal to the depths of a LimeWire. It’s a sledgehammer of heaviness that isn’t fit to be digested and disposed of like most music of the streaming era. Every hideous pore in this release should be examined with a scalpel until it bleeds. The only thing holding Federal Death Alliance back is distance – about five-thousand miles, to be exact. With members scattered across the US and the UK, they aren’t exactly booking weekly practices. This has allowed them to focus so absolutely on the ‘it came from MySpace’ sound, creating Ashen Paradise as an almost prototypical example of it. Call Oxford – they need to update their dictionary.
8.5/10
Ashen Paradise releases independently on 6th February through all streaming platforms.