Welcome to Heavy Blog is Heavy’s feature, “The Anatomy Of.” Taken from the Between The Buried And Me album of the same name, in which the band pays tribute to artists/bands that they feel have most inspired their songwriting, “The Anatomy Of” allows us to hand off the metaphorical microphone to bands so they can talk about their influences. Read more entries from this series here.
Watching a band develop over the years is a privilege that is hard to describe. But I’ll give it a shot. A few years ago I caught From Sorrow To Serenity on a stacked line up in one of Glasgow’s smaller metal venues. Their showmanship, technical ability and music left me with no doubt that the band were heading places.
Skip forward a couple of years and their first full length has been released. Remnant Of Humanity is a colossal groove train of a record. Snapping up guest appearances from members of Bleed From Within, Betraying The Martyrs and Thy Art Is Murder, the album has been spun on national radio, spread all over the worldwide metal blogisphere and has the band supporting deathcore heavyweights Fit For An Autopsy on their upcoming UK tour. I pestered Steven Jones, the axeman and dial wizard from the band about where the From Sorrow To Serenity took shape. Bonne.
After The Burial – Rareform
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVFiqDTtP50
After The Burial had a profound effect on me as a kid, listening to the heaviest dropped tuned guitars I had ever heard for the first time, they blew me away. Particularly with the Rareform re-issue – which was the first of their records I ever listened to, and to this day is my favourite record they did. I can’t remember exactly how I became aware of this band or for what reason I first listened, but I’m so glad I did. From Sorrow To Serenity may not be overly similiar to After The Burial, despite them being probably my number one heavy band, but you can be sure that they’ve had a serious influence on me, both as a songwriter and as a metal fan. This band opened up the doors to many a band and many a riff for me. RIP Justin.
System Of A Down – Mesmerize
System Of A Down were one of the bands who marked my transition into a metal-head. They had tough competition from Linkin Park and Machine Head, but I’d say listening to these guys was the defining moment for me. I knew I could listen to their albums all day and all night without getting bored, and their unique blend of Eastern culture with metal really killed the game, and still does today, for me. Then Serj and Daron had to fall out over some dumb shit and ruin it all, but whatever. They still made some killer albums.
Machine Head – The Blackening
Machine Head. Already mentioned above, but I remember listening to The Blackening for the first time, waiting through two minutes of weird built up guitars at the beginning of “Clenching The Fists of Dissent” for something to happen, and I thought ”man, this is gonna suck”, but low and behold; that riff. Still rips me apart! Sure enough, the album continues on in a no-holds barred manner and just keeps you hooked from start to end. Machine Head were probably the first really heavy Metal band I listened to. Think I was in the car with my dad in 2008, we’d just been down to HMV to buy this album because the television man told us ”metal album of the year 2008” and I actually believed him. To be fair, they were more than right. What an album. What a band. Machine Head changed the game for me, similiar to the way After The Burial and System of a Down did. More than worth a mention in my influences! While From Sorrow To Serenity sounds NOTHING like Machine Head – they had a hand in my deciding to pick up the guitar and riff. Therefore, Machine Head created From Sorrow To Serenity. There you go, I said it, it’s there in black and white. Exclusive to Heavy Blog Is Heavy – Machine Head are the rightful owners of From Sorrow To Serenity. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Fit For An Autopsy – Hellbound
More recently, I found myself listening to Fit For An Autopsy. A lot. Hellbound is an amazing album and I think it does a great job of mashing together a number of different styles in metal and making something of it’s own. I draw huge inspiration from that. With our new album, we wanted to achieve something similiar, in carving our own mould and making something where people can listen and go – ”Hey – that’s From Sorrow To Serenity” – in the same way that I think anyone can do with a group like Fit For An Autopsy, and an album like Hellbound. It’s really cool as we recently announced a mainland EU and UK tour with them in July – very excited to get on the road with these dudes and hear some tracks I absolutely adore live!
From Sorrow To Serenity’s new record Remnant of Humanity is available now via the Bandcamp Player below.