From Ashes To New have released their fifth studio album Reflections and unveiled the video for Forever, marking a new creative phase for the band as they continue to evolve their rap rock and alternative metal hybrid sound.
by Paul Cashmere
From Ashes To New have released their new studio album Reflections via Better Noise Music. The 12-track album arrives alongside the release of a new video for Forever, directed by Orie McGuinness, which expands the band’s dynamic approach to heavy rock production with a blend of rap-infused verses, melodic choruses and dense breakdowns.
Reflections represents a recalibration point for From Ashes To New, who entered the project after abandoning an earlier batch of recordings. Rather than continuing a conventional album rollout, the band chose to reset and rebuild, retaining only two tracks from the original sessions.
The result is a record that reflects internal change as much as musical ambition. The band frames the album around themes of psychological limbo, regret and transition, capturing a sense of tension between progress and relapse that runs through its sequencing.
Forever sits at a pivotal point in the album’s narrative. Matt Brandyberry describes the track as one of the final pieces written for the project.
“Forever came together at the very end of the record, almost like it was waiting for everything else to fall into place before it could exist,” Brandyberry says. “There’s a sense of finality to it, like standing in the aftermath of something you can’t fix, realising too late where it all went wrong. It paints a picture of how it feels when regret won’t let go.”
He adds that the band deliberately pushed beyond its established comfort zone during the recording process. “We pushed ourselves further than we ever have on this one. We made choices that felt uncomfortable, but that’s what helped shape it into something different for us. The goal wasn’t to play it safe, it was to evolve and create something that sticks with you. Forever doesn’t resolve cleanly. It lingers, and that’s exactly what we wanted.”
Across Reflections, the group explores contrast, balancing aggressive instrumentation with melodic framing. The production leans into electronic textures, hip hop phrasing and metal breakdown structures, continuing the genre-blending identity that has defined the band since its early releases.
The album’s tracklist is as follows:
“Drag Me”
“Forever”
“Villain”
“Die For You”
“Black Hearts”
“Upside Down”
“(Not) Psycho”
“Parasite”
“New Disease”
“Darkside”
“Falling From Heaven”
“Your Ghost”
From Ashes To New formed in Pennsylvania in 2013 and have built a catalogue that sits at the intersection of rap rock, nu metal and alternative metal. Across previous albums including Day One, The Future, Panic and Blackout, the band has steadily refined a hybrid sound that merges rap cadences with heavy guitar-driven arrangements and electronic production layers.
Their 2023 release Blackout marked a commercial high point, with multiple chart successes across digital platforms. That success created pressure internally as the group began work on what was initially intended to be their fifth album. Instead of finalising that material, the band opted to discard most of it, retaining only two songs and restarting the process.
That decision ultimately shaped Reflections into a more thematically cohesive record. Rather than a traditional concept album, the band describes it as unified by mood, specifically a sense of being suspended between forward motion and emotional setback.
The group’s evolution reflects a broader trend in heavy music where genre boundaries continue to blur. Rap rock and nu metal, once defined by late 1990s and early 2000s mainstream peaks, have undergone renewed creative interest in recent years, particularly through hybrid production approaches and streaming era genre fluidity.
While the band frames the album as an intentional artistic reset, the decision to abandon completed material is not without risk in a commercial sense. Industry practice typically favours iterative development, particularly after a successful release cycle such as Blackout.
However, From Ashes To New’s approach aligns with a growing number of contemporary rock and metal acts prioritising long-term identity development over immediate output consistency. The trade-off often involves extended production cycles and increased uncertainty, balanced against the potential for more distinct artistic statements.
Within that context, Reflections can be viewed as both a continuation of the band’s established sound and a recalibration of how they define their next phase.
With Reflections now released and Forever highlighting its emotional and sonic scope, From Ashes To New appear positioned at a transitional point in their catalogue. The album captures a band actively reshaping its identity while remaining anchored in the aggressive, hybrid sound that first defined their rise.
Whether this recalibration signals a sustained shift or a single-era reinvention will likely become clearer as the band moves toward future touring cycles and follow-up material.
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