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EP review: Asking Alexandria – Where Do We Go From Here? The Remixes EP
Metalcore stalwarts Asking Alexandria wring little from last album on remix EP.
- Words:
- James Hickie
What purpose, one wonders, does this release serve? It could be argued that the album this EP tinkers with the tracks from, last year’s Where Do We Go From Here?, was already something of a ‘remix’ record – curating the characteristic elements from Asking Alexandria’s rollercoaster 15-year career into something new. So why follow it up with this approach? Because founding guitarist Ben Bruce’s answer to the question posed by that record was leaving AA to spend more time with his family. So perhaps this serves as something of a stop-gap as the band recalibrates after losing their primary songwriter?
Could this be a sign of what’s to come? Of absolute stylistic abandon. Of being the devil-may-care musical operators they’ve always threatened to be, but never quite managed – anchored, somewhat, by the expectations of fans for whom metalcore is very metalmoreish. Let’s hope not. Or maybe they just wanted to make a better fist of a remix record than their previous effort, 2011’s dubstep land-grab Stepped Up And Scratched?
Whatever the reason for its creation, this isn’t a successful exercise. If freshness and invention are the aim, then giving Bad Blood a stuttering EDM makeover, as Indonesian DJs Weird Genius have, isn’t the way to go. AA are a band that have long been in need of refinement, so it feels somewhat counterproductive now that they’ve done so to bolt on elements that make it so overwrought. The inclusion of the original title-track from the record alongside the Fairlane Remix highlights what an exercise in gilding the lily this is.
It’s not entirely without merit, though. LA producer kodeblooded’s take on Let Go flies in the face of the rather dour tone of proceedings, injecting energy in a way that avoids being overbearing. It’s a brief moment of fun in an otherwise underwhelming exercise in navel-gazing.
Verdict: 2/5
For fans of: Bring Me The Horizon, Pendulum, Korn
Where Do We Go From Here? The Remixes EP is released on October 18 via Better Noise
