Behold Asking Alexandria – Metalcore Extreme

Read Time 3 Minutes

About Asking Alexandria

Asking Alexandria technically originated in Dubai, India in 2008 at the behest of lead guitarist Ben Bruce. Ben Bruce had recorded an album called The Irony of Your Perfection and was released under the name Asking Alexandria and within about a month the group split up. Fast work.

Well later that year Bruce had concluded his sojourn in Dubai when he moved back to York, North Yorkshire. When he returned to the UK he pretty much picked right back up where he’d left off by finding a whole new group of musicians to play with who would gather under the name Asking Alexandria. This would be the official formation of the band we know today as everything prior to this moment has been regarded as a wholly separate band.

It’s kinda like how there are many bands named Behemoth. Same name, but all different groups. It’s just that in this case the two groups even shared a member.

What they were before is now irrelevant. What they’ve become is a heavy metal band that derives influences from old rock and metal, modern metalcore, and harsher electronic music. The music has crushingly heavy guitars that are often complemented by very electronic sounding keyboards. The abundance of chuggy breakdowns go hand in hand with the blend of death metal grows, screeching shouts, and melodic singing. Listening to music from their beginning through to the released tracks off their upcoming album you can hear how the style has matured over their career.

It’s kind of a not for the feint of heart type thing.

Discography

The band currently has two albums released and a third one coming out soon. Within a year of Asking Alexandria’s formation their first album Stand Up and Scream was released via Sumerian Records. A number of the songs had already been released when they were in their demo stages, though the songs all got a facelift for the real McCoy release. Sticking with Sumerian, two years later in 2011 their followup album Reckless & Relentless saw the light of day. Here the band experimented with a different ratio between their metal and electronic instrumentation with more tricks being pulled from their bag of old rock influences.

Now it’s 2013 and their third album From Death to Destiny is scheduled for release on August 6th. The album, having been recorded in seven separate recording studios, is going to deviate from the path many metal bands traverse. The overall theme is set to be more optimistic with more uplifting lyrics and messages. This interests me even more so after having read some of the song titles. Nothing quite screams of a will to live like songs such as “The Death of Me”, “Dead”, or “Killing Me”, but I digress.

For kicks here’s the full track listing to From Death to Destiny:
1. Sick and Tired
2. The Death of Me
3. White Line Fever
4. All You Got to Do
5. Dead
6. Creature
7. The Road
8. Burn It to the Ground
9. Killing Me
10. Run Free
11. Moving On
12. Don’t Pray for Me

The Band Members

The lineup of Asking Alexandria has been relatively unchanged since their origin. In fact only two lineup changes have happened. The original members include Ben Bruce who tends to the lead guitars, programming, and backup vocals, Camberon Liddell who covers rhythm guitars, James Cassells on drums, and Danny Worsnop who does the lead vocals, keyboards, and any additional programming. Former member Ryan Binns originally took care of the keyboards and programming, though his tenure with the band was short lived. Joe Lancaster was also the original bassist but in 2009 he was replaced by the current bassist Sam Bettley.

Music and Videos

Here are a couple songs. Give them a listen and see if they’re up your alley if you haven’t heard them already. Here’s the song “The Death of Me” off the upcoming From Death to Destiny.