On a recent business trip to Indianapolis, IN, while trying to kill four hours of driving I thought listening to a new album from a local Indy band might be a good idea. I haven’t revisited Apostle of Solitude in a while, someone else covered their 2014 Of Woe and Wounds, so it was time to get back to Chuck Brown & Co. Much to my surprise I found the band … going quite a bit back towards their origins of slower side of doom. Not quite the protracted Sincerest Misery (my Surprise of the Month back when), From Gold to Ash concludes its deliberations in about half the time but leaves an impact.

From Gold to Ash does not quite start molasses slow. Intro Overlord sets the table seemingly in the opposite direction by stretching and flexing its muscles. Drums bash, bass is thick and guitars rule, so when the thick wall of riffs in Ruination Be Thy Name arrives, its somewhat unhurried disposition does not quite foresee where Apostle of Solitude is going next on the album. Two opposite pathways could have been chosen. Instead of accelerating, the band opts for a cleaner acoustic slowdown and the knifing solo. That fork in the road in Ruination Be Thy Name proves to be faithful for the whole album, and things really get slow and mournful on Keeping the Lighthouse where weepy Messiah Marcolin voice completes the old Candlemass impression. The slow and mournful continue even more so on My Heart is Leaving Here, where fantastic minor chord songwriting is really on full display. Another sharp edged solo does not diminish almost funeral connotations in My Heart is Leaving Here, which only continue with Monochrome (Discontent) where obvious sweet sadness flows in waves.

I realize I am doing almost a track by track album review, which is something I am always trying to avoid, but so is the trail of From Gold to Ash that you want to walk it in steps, recognizing every each and one of them. The final chapter then is Grey Farewell where the doomed soul trudges and drags itself along to the execution place. Ratcheting their creative engines to the unhurried slower edge, Apostle of Solitude stands no less at the emotional cliff which is a must, whichever portion of doom spectrum you are targeting.