Sometimes an album can be considered on its own merit, or with just a passing reference to the context it exists within. For others, they can, indeed, should, be linked to a “run” or an arc of albums within a period of a band’s career. And for some, it is worth going back to the beginning to truly see the big picture of what and why a specific album is.
So, while Asking Alexandria‘s eighth album Where Do We Go From Here? (Better Noise), is a question framed as if looking forwards, given as it is the title, it has clearly been posited at the start of the process of this album, given the outcome.
Deliberately referencing each era and element of the band’s previous releases, on first listen things may feel a little disjointed which is why the journey back through stereophonic sound – back to the Melodeath-tinged Stand Up and Scream and the sub-bass breakdown-heavy-mixed-with-soaring-rock hooks of Reckless and Relentless that were the coals that forged the diamond that is From Death To Destiny, even if the pressure that forged that beast led to vocalist Danny Worsnop‘s short break from the band for 2016’s underrated, if middle-grounded, polished darkness of The Black – is essential to fully appreciating their latest offering.
More essential to understanding Where Do We Go From Here?, though, is consideration of the steadiness of the acclaimed, rockier, more mainstream self-titled release (that saw Worsnop’s return), and the two strong albums that have come since, a run that peaked with 2021’s See What’s On The Inside, a record that reintroduced some of the earlier elements of AA’s overall identity, and served to return to a drive to progress and develop, and to experiment and diversify within an album, rather than to settle.
Where Do We Go From Here? sees the UK quintet chuck a further hefty pinch of heavy spice and vigour back into the mixing pot.
So, to challenge the earlier point, it is not a lack of cohesion, more an acknowledgment that Asking Alexandria have, throughout their career, always covered a significant range within their sound… and that a celebration of everything they’ve been emphasizing that, in 2023, AA are in a very good place indeed.
A heady cocktail of energy, anthems, stomps, choruses, riffs, chugs, electro-pulses, great dynamics… Where Do We Go From Here feels like a band all in the zone and up for re-planting their flag. And this isn’t a free-for-all, the overall tone across the album is emphatic, vibrant contemporary rock, but with a little more shaking it up than for a little while.
‘Bad Blood’ kicks things off like modern-day Architects before dipping into an electro-verse and rising into a blast-beat surging chorus sets the hairs up on the neck, running alongside a desire to be stood in a field as the sun-sets singing along with a horde of thousands. ‘Things Could Be Different’ brings back the heavy lurches, as well as a healthy dose of symphonics, dancing them into an anthemic chorus and an epic mid-section.
‘Let The Dead Take Me’ and ‘Nothing Left’ are flat-out great heavy rocking tunes, adding a burst of vivacity to the previous three Worsnop-fronted albums with some testicle-swinging deep riffing alongside some huge choruses.
‘Dark Void’ is more reflective but no less emphatic. Symphonics have given way to electro-passages, choruses more underplayed but no less infectious, landing a punching breakdown as the song unfurls. ‘Let Go’ and ‘Feel’ play in the same pool as the recent run of albums, ‘Kill It With Fire’ is a brief but welcome punky riot before ‘Holding On To Something More’ heralds back to Bon Jovi roots with a metalcore pulse, another belter to boot. We close out with the beautiful, contemplative acoustic title track.
Is Where Do We Go From Here? the “best” Asking Alexandria album? Probably not (From Death To Destiny isn’t giving up the fight for that particular crown just yet), and not everything lands (despite being a single, ‘Psycho’ is a little unconvincing both lyrically and in delivery, for example even if the pop experimentation is in keeping with the “anything goes” vibe of the album) but it’s not far off at all, and does it serve up a selection of energetic, cracking songs to add to their arsenal, while injecting a mischievous chaos representing who they are and what they’ve done in a more meaningful way than a half-arsed “best of” with some bonus tracks tagged on.
After an iconic opening trilogy, a worthy standalone, and an increasingly strong three album-run post-Worsnop’s return, Where Do We Go From Here? does not just pose the eponymous question, but takes up a unique position in Asking Alexandria’s catalogue. Too good to be a placeholder, perhaps it serves best as an epilogue to the first fifteen years while they ponder what the rest of their musical lives will bring, but most likely, it re-opens to door to a fertile future where all bets are off.
Where Do We Go From Here is the sound of a band not just in great form but producing a statement release, and there is more than enough heavy songwriting talent in this group to enable the answer to be wherever they damn well want.
Buy the album here:
https://askingalexandria.ffm.to/wdwgfh
8 / 10
STEVE TOVEY