Considering the Carolinas’ long love affair with boundary-pushing and
trendsetting metalcore, it’s unsurprising that Charleston, SC would produce
a band like Your Spirit Dies. Formed in 2019 and consisting of members
Brandon Byars, Tyler Dorman, Holden Hall, Keagan McChesney, and
Brannon Crumpton, the band’s 2020 debut EP, The Process of Grief, was a
blistering statement of intent that called to mind the best aspects of genre
standouts like Undying and Prayer For Cleansing. Blending death metal
inspired riffing, crushing breakdowns, and tasteful flourishes of melody, The
Process of Grief both served as a love letter to the turn-of-the-century
classics that influenced it, and established the young band as a force to be
reckoned with.
On their 2022 followup, Our Saints Drown In Ash, Your Spirit Dies made it
abundantly clear that The Process of Grief was no fluke. Like any great
sophomore effort, Our Saints Drown In Ash simultaneously continues and
expands upon the sonic groundwork laid by its predecessor, retaining the
band’s throwback-metalcore ferocity while introducing a bevy of new tricks.
Where The Process of Grief flirted with melody, Our Saints Drown In Ash
revels in it, folding early Ferret and Trustkill Records influence into their
already well-rounded arsenal. The melodeath riffing remains in full effect,
but its technicality is turned up to 11, recalling the intricacy of early Shai
Hulud channeled through a Gothenburg lens. If The Process of Grief was
the blueprint, Our Saints Drown In Ash is the fully realized structure.
Not content to be mere revivalists, Your Spirit Dies incorporates the best
parts of metalcore’s 30 year history into a hard-hitting, concise package
that is vital, immediate, and timely. None of the genre’s worst excesses are
on display here; No 7-minute songs, haughty navel-gazing, or
experimentation for its own sake. Instead, this is metalcore at its most
undiluted, pushing the fundamental building blocks of the form to their
logical limit while remaining lean and focused. Your Spirit Dies understand
what made metalcore such a powerful force in the first place, and they’re
here to indoctrinate the unbelievers.