Unto Ashes, the band around Michael Laird, is an American gothic medieval band. Pretty much some sort of Estampie of the New World. Their repertoire however is fully inspired by the Old World. Songs for a Widow is their album and this one is released with projekt in the USA and Pandaimonium in Europe.

High-pitched ethereal vocals are dressed up with a rich instrumentation in which influences from classical (‘Intacta Sum’), medieval, oriental (‘Convivio’, ‘Drei Todesarten’), symphonic rock and darkwave music have been processed. The combinations of sounds and atmospheres are sometimes a bit peculiar yet they create a versatile album to listen to. A song such as ‘You Will Never Know’ has a layer of metal guitars, with a low-tuned guitar sound combined with ethereal vocals and black metal like half whispered screams. ‘The Life of this World’ is more towards traditional neofolk, ‘Occupying Force’ has a martial touch and ‘I Am Untouched’ with the electronic beats goes in the direction of the sound of Qntal.

The album is opened with a reference to Covenant’s ‘One World One Sky’ disguised as a requiem, and ended with a jolly medieval cover version of that same song. A bit strange yet very tasteful. This also goes for the entire album. The tracks unfortunately are a bit short in duration yet this has the advantage you won’t get bored very quickly as you are constantly introduced to different musical styles and influences.