From Death to Destiny Reviews

As a fan of their older stuff and also their new stuff, I think this album is by far the best sound for them. Musically, this album sounds like the crossbreed between Slipknot and Motley Crue, and artistically, is Asking Alexandria at their peak.

This album has the most emotional intelligence of all of their discography and a lot of other albums in the same genre. Some of the lyrics are so deep and heartbreaking it's darn near impossible not to feel something. From unapologetically submitting to their demons on Don't Pray For Me, to woefully expressing the grief of losing someone you love to those demons on Killing You, this album is a gut punch of emotion.

The writing on The Death of Me (the metal version not the watered down -but still good- radio edit) is also phenomenal, lyrically but most impressively sonically. The meshing of the powerful yet warm and somber guitar tones to create a soothing yet devastating wall of sound backed by the powerful drums edited with a hint of the Joey Sturgis sound we all know and love but mixed with a blend of the more natural and dirty, with a more flat sounding kick drum sound we would normally hear from a Slipknot record really gives the drumming a bigger sense of legitimacy due to it sounding more live and natural, which is vital as James Cassell's is one of the best to ever do it. The guitar riff on this song is absolutely mesmerizing only to be matched perfectly by the sporadic yet rhythmic vocals which implement various style of screaming.

Dont Pray For Me, Killing You, The Death of Me, Believe and Until The End have some of the most memorable riffs Ben Bruce has ever written, accompanied by some powerful and extremely moving chords played on their choruses.

Their choruses on this album are definitely the most moving sections. Every chorus is unique both vocally and instrumentally. The chorus instrumentals on songs like Believe, Poison and Dead create collosal and very animated walls of sound that create the perfect foundation for Danny Worsnops powerful soaring vocals to create a sound that is entirely unprecedented and has yet to be matched until this day.

Soft songs like Moving On, White Line Fever and to a lesser extent The Road or Creature, create a nice break from the heaviness and they manage to not only not take away from the theme of the album but compliment it.

These soft songs became staples in their discography and showed how dimensional they can be as musicians as they demonstrated their versatility and did so very well. Moving On is an emotional masterpiece and one of the most well written rock songs I've ever listened to, yet it still somehow pales in comparison to the rest of the heavy hitters on this album (a testament to the greatness of the heavier tracks)

The only bad part about this album is that it ends, and the sad realization that AA never went back to this sound. The Black is heavy as well, but it doesn't have the emotional and musical maturity displayed in this album. They came close to replicating this magic with their self titled 2017 release, but it fell short due to the amount of radio and arena rock songs.

From Death to Destiny is a masterpiece that was hurt by a troubled production, but even then it still managed to shine as one of the most moving and best metal albums of all time. Truly, their magnum opus.

10/10