from awesome to ashes

From Autumn to Ashes
"Holding a Wolf By the Ears"
(Vagrant)

I am not the biggest fan of From Autumn to Ashes. Their first record, "Too Bad You're Beautiful" was good enough, but subsequent albums were of poor execution. Their latest offering, "Holding a Wolf By the Ears," doesn't have anything too spectacular and nothing that I haven't heard on the first three Thrice albums, but it's still one of the finest melodic hardcore records I've heard in quite some time. Though they've traded in Ben Perri's Cookie Monster-esque growls for Fran Mark's ful-on sing/scream combo, it works in such a way where it's more of an attribute than a crutch. This may be the best record from this genre in quite some time.