Pleasant 'nightmares,' Tennessee style

From Ashes Rise is one of the best bands you've never heard. Their fall/winter tour kicks off this November to bring Nightmares to life in front of a few lucky cities -- a wall of audible aggression.\nFrom Ashes Rise started in 1997 from the demise of His Hero is Gone and Deaththreat as one of the early, and now many, bands kicking out "Tennessee-style" hardcore. Touring heavily, the band quickly gained a large fan base in the mounting crust-core scene. Their self-titled EP has become a hardcore classic, and the band hasn't slowed down since. Now, the band has finally made the push to major indie-label territory with 12 tracks of their trademark, freight-train sound. \nThe band's sound is definitive and often imitated. The pressing on blood-red vinyl exemplifies the brutality of punching drums, pummeling riffs and abrasive vocals, bringing on a melodic darkness. The album takes no prisoners, opening with "Reaction" and trudging through to "Interlude," which gives the listener a breather before the climactic ending of "Bloodlust" and "In a Free Land," its best tracks. \nAs the band leaves the Midwest in its dust this fall, this record will fly off the shelves thanks to the band's die-hard following.