Staring Back at Yourself and Not Looking Away: From Ashes to New - Reflections (Album Review) Released: 4/17/26

 

Reflections is the kind of record that only gets made when a band is willing to be brutally honest with themselves, and From Ashes to New have never been more honest than they are here. Formed in Lancaster, Pennsylvania a small town that breeds either resignation or relentless ambition the band's current lineup of Danny Case (clean and unclean vocals), Matt Brandyberry (rap vocals, keys, programming, guitar), Lance Dowdle (lead guitar), Maty Madiro (drums), and Jimmy Bennett (rhythm guitar) has delivered their most cohesive and emotionally direct album to date. The road to this record wasn't clean. The band scrapped an entire session of demos, kept two songs, and rebuilt everything from the ground up. That decision cost them time and comfort. It gave them Reflections.

The album opens with "Drag Me," which wastes no time in establishing the emotional stakes. This is a song about losing the war with yourself, about the parts of you that know better but keep pulling you downward anyway. Case and Brandyberry's dual vocal chemistry is immediately on display, Case's melodic delivery carrying the ache while Brandyberry's delivery cuts through with a harder, more urgent aggression. Dowdle's guitar work is deliberate and heavy, and Madiro's drumming hits with a physicality that makes the track feel like something you experience rather than just hear. It's a near-perfect opener. "Forever" follows with a more melodic, aching quality that slows the tempo just enough to breathe before "Villain" arrives and complicates everything in the best way. A song told entirely from the perspective of the person who knows they're bad for someone and leans into it anyway. The tension in that framing is magnetic, and the production matches it, coiling tight before releasing in the chorus with a force that earns every second of the buildup.

"Die For You" carries the album's most emotionally raw moment, the kind of track that makes you wonder how much of it is performance and how much of it is confession. "Black Hearts" and "Upside Down" maintain the album's momentum with sharp, hard-hitting arrangements that lean into the band's nu-metal and alt-metal roots without ever feeling derivative. There's a directness to this stretch of the record that keeps it from sagging, no filler, no transitional padding, just song after song that knows exactly what it wants to do and does it. "(Not) Psycho" injects a darker, more sardonic energy into the middle of the tracklist, with Brandyberry's vocal performance carrying an edge that feels genuinely unhinged in the most controlled way possible. It's one of the record's more interesting moments precisely because it refuses to be comfortable.

"Parasite" and "New Disease" form a thematic pair at the record's center, both circling ideas of contamination, the kind that comes from outside forces and the kind you carry inside yourself. "New Disease" in particular is unflinching in its examination of desperation, the need to be seen at any cost, and the way that hunger hollows people out. The writing is pointed without being preachy, which is a balance. From Ashes to New have always managed well, but rarely this cleanly. "Darkside" leans into the band's electronic influences with a production texture that adds depth to the second half of the record, while "Falling From Heaven" delivers one of the album's most emotionally complete performances, a track that feels like the weight of everything that came before it finally landing at once. The album closes with "Your Ghost," a haunting and restrained finish that lets the dust settle without tying anything too neatly. Some things don't resolve. The song understands that.

The production throughout Reflections is sharp and purposeful. Every instrument sits exactly where it needs to, and nothing gets buried.  Dowdle's guitar tones are thick and defined, Madiro's kit sounds enormous without dominating the mix, and the interplay between Case and Brandyberry remains the beating heart of everything. Bennett's full-time addition to the lineup adds a live energy to the record's guitar work that fills out the sound in ways that feel natural rather than forced. This is a record that would translate immediately and powerfully to a live setting, which is the truest test of whether the production has done its job. Reflections is From Ashes to New at their most self-aware, their most refined, and their most willing to sit inside discomfort without flinching. It's a record about looking at the reflection staring back at you, the good parts, the bad parts, and the parts you'd rather not acknowledge at all, and choosing to stay in the room anyway. For a band that has always built its identity around honesty, this is the most honest they've ever been. The underground and the mainstream both have reason to pay attention.

Check out the visualizer for their track Villain:

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