From Earth are a band with a very modern outlook on the tried and tested Metal medium. They are a relatively new band, forming from the remnants of BORN FROM PAIN and BLIND SIGHT in late 2012, and they are looking to introduce their own ideas and style into the larger Metal world. Their debut record, "Dark Waves", illustrates their talents and style, and acts as a statement of intent for a band that are ready to take on the world. So, how does the band's first release shape up?

The song that opens the album, "The Fallen Ones", is extremely heavy, but at the same time quite melodic, which is hard to find in a lot of bands that go for a more modern and mainstream approach to Metal music. Either you are battered by wall of noise designed to show that this band is indeed the heaviest, or you get a much lighter, melodic variety of music. This balances heaviness and technical ability with ease, and has some very catchy, sing along vocal parts. "Fragment of Creation" builds on the guitar work further by adding a lot of groove into the mix and managing to embrace the mainstream and the extreme aspects of Metal very well. It has a very strong LAMB OF GOD vibe to it, much like the song Godforsaken", which features toward the end of the record. "Dark Center" illustrates that this band are fully capable of doing songs that aren't necessarily overbearingly heavy and still make them work. Vocally, some sections of it are very reminiscent of MASTODON or even DEVIN TOWNSEND in their delivery.  "Perfect Storm" is again a very heavy track, but at the same time as assaulting your aural cavity, it assuages it with some lilting melodies and nice vocal hooks. This track is driven, in particular, by the force and power of Matthieu Boer behind the drum kit, who puts in a stellar performance. The guitar lines have an almost Nu Metal quality to them at certain points, without going completely off the deep end into AMERICAN HEADCHARGE worship.

Then comes a short interlude track called "Libera Nos", which is clearly influenced strongly by Nu Metal, and acts as a great way for the band to lead into the albums heaviest track, "The Longest Fight", a song which is aggressive and filled with plenty of riffs. The penultimate track, "Age of Deceit" has thick and inspired guitar riffs, and is again driven by the powerful drumming. It is a great song on which to lead the album to its climax, "New Light". In my opinion, this wasn't the best track to close this record on. Despite the fact that the song is great, it doesn't have that power and emotion which is usually indicative of the last tracks on many records.

This is a great first record for this band, and has a lot of promise for them to build their own sound around. If you are into more modern and progressive types of Metal, Metalcore especially, then I would recommend that you try this band out and see what you think of them.