From Ashes To New Brings The Blackout Tour To New Jersey's Starland Ballroom

On Saturday, November 25th 2023- From Ashes To New brought The Blackout Tour to New Jersey’s Starland Ballroom with supporting artists Ekoh, Catch Your Breath and The Word Alive.

First artist to take the stage was Jeff Thompson, known as Ekoh. Ekoh is an indie hip hop rap artist located in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ekoh is not like any artist you may have heard in this industry before and if you haven’t, I would recommend checking this artist out.

To begin the set off, he performed ‘Let Down’ which was a single released back in 2019 with Futuristic featured in the studio recording. For someone attending the show and expecting all the acts to be metal artists, this one definitely threw me off. I was not expecting a rap artist to be performing but in all honesty, I was very pleased. The lyrics behind all of his tracks gives fans a true emotion, giving them something to relate to. Ekoh had loads of energy to give to the crowd and eventually had fans getting off their feet to start jumping up and down. During the third song of the set, Ekoh performed ‘numb’ which was released in January 2023 from the album titled “The D4tour”. Towards the middle of the song, he jumped off the stage and made his way into the crowd and started to sing the lyrics to the fans who were surrounding him. Blending hip hop and indie together creates such a beautiful music experience to those who love those individual genres.

To close off the set, he performed ‘Freeverse 3’ which came from the album “Along The Way” which was released back in 2017. During this song, he called out to those in the crowd who were wearing vans to kindly toss one of their shoes onto the stage. As the shoes made their way to the stage, he signed parts of the shoes. Honestly I was very shocked that one of those shoes didn’t magically hit somebody in the face. Overall, Ekoh put on a phenomenal performance and I loved the interaction he had with the audience. His performance definitely set up the fans on what to expect later in the night.

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Next to take the stage was Catch Your Breath. Catch Your Breath is pioneering a new era for the metalcore community in this industry. The band is based from Austin, Texas and is composed of members vocalist Joshua Mowery, drummer Onell Hernandez, bassist Cianan Madigan and lastly guitarist Teddy Herrera. Their songs give a lot of emotion through their lyrics and give the audience something to relate to; whether someone is going through rough times or not. Recently this band has released a new album in October 2023 titled ‘Shame On Me’. The album features well known streamed songs such as "Dial Tone”, “Shame on Me”, and “21 Gun Salute” and others.

To start their set, they began with ‘Deadly’ which is one of the perfect ways to start a set. The heavy, catchy introduction riff followed by Mowery’s clean vocals. The band made sure the energy kept the same throughout the whole set by headbanging in unison. The third song of their set was “Mirror’’ which featured hip hop artist Ekoh. Not going to lie, I completely forgot that Ekoh was featured in the song until he stepped foot on stage. Fans were cheering as he walked onto the stage for his parts of the song and to be honest, I’ve seen so many features join artists on stage for songs but this performance was perfect in every way possible. For an opening band, I’ve never seen such a massive mosh pit before. The support and fans this band has and the impact they have made on people’s lives is so beautiful.

To conclude their set, they played fan favorites “21 Gun Salute” and lastly “Dial Tone” both from the ‘Shame On Me’ album. Fans were roaring as they were about to start these songs. The venue lights went dark as it was brightening up with the flashlights from the audience. All you were able to hear were the voices from the crowd screaming and crying to these lyrics. Both of these songs have such emotional lyrics behind the instrumentals and honorably these songs have portrayed such an important message to those who are struggling and battling with their inner demons and past relationships in life. In the mosh pit, everybody who participated in the pit was holding hands and linking arms and enjoying the memory they are creating for themselves. Overall, the band as a whole have such insane talent and it was my second time seeing this band perform live. Their performances have improved so much from the first time I saw them which was back in March. Make sure to stream their latest album and I promise you that you will never regret it.

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As we make our way closer to the headlining act, nobody can forget about The Word Alive. The Word Alive is an American metalcore band formed in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2008 and are currently signed through Thriller Records. Members of The Word Alive consist of Tyler “Telle” Smith on vocals, Zack Hansen and Jose DelRio on guitars and lastly Daneil Nelson on drums. I’ve been listening to The Word Alive since I was in elementary school back in 2014 when they released the album ‘REAL.’. This was my first opportunity to photograph this band and I was very thrilled to be able to get this experience and capture the beautiful live moments through my camera. In recent times, this band has released a brand new album titled ‘Hard Reset’ which came out in August of this year. Out of all the recent album releases this band has put out, this album has definitely made one of my top albums of the year for 2023. As they were about to make their way to the stage, there was an automated bot that was speaking with flashing red strobe LED lights which gave off the very dramatic appearance.

When all the members walked on stage, they started performing “Strange Love’’ which came from their latest album. Smith immediately called for the crowd to get off their feet and asked them “ARE YOU F*CKING READY SAYREVILLE?”. Immediately crowd surfers made their way to the front row towards the security. The photo pit was very small and with the amount of people surfing their way to the stage, I am thrilled and shocked that me or the other photographers did not get kicked in the head. Who knew people still had such strong energy left after all the opener bands. Smith’s vocals have improved so much over the years and his screams have left fans in shock, including myself. During their set, they played one of their best hits titled “Trapped” which came from the album ‘Dark Matter’ from 2016. Towards the pre- breakdown of the song, all the members called for the pit to split down the center from both the left and right to form one of their biggest ‘wall of death’. I got so excited to the point I told a friend to hold my camera equipment so I could participate in it. Out of all the pits I’ve been in, this had to be one of the most energetic ones ever.

To close their set, they performed new singles from their latest album which consists of songs known as “One Of Us” which features Bad Omen’s frontman Noah Sebastian and finally conclude their set with top hit single “New Reality”. Comparing both songs live to the original studio version is very impressive because of how similar they both sound live. The band has extreme talent as a whole and Hansen, DelRio and Nelson’s talents with the instrumentals and keeping up with the beat is fantastic. I’ve seen The Word Alive open for Starset on a previous tour and there has been such huge improvement in both the vocals as well as the instrumental aspect to the performance. At the end of their performance, the band was all hanging out by the merch table to meet fans and sign items as well as take photos. I love when bands stick around to greet their both old and new fans. They are the nicest guys I’ve ever met and I hope to catch them in the area again soon.

Keep Up With The Word Alive: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Youtube | Website

Finally the band everybody has been waiting to see… From Ashes To New finally takes a turn to the stage for their headlining tour in celebration of their latest album ‘Blackout’ which was released in July of this year. From Ashes To New is an American rock band from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The band as a whole gives fans a blend of rap and rock tied together which also reminds fans of nü metal. Members of From Ashes To New consists of vocalists Danny Case and Matt Brandyberry, Lance Dowdle on lead guitars with touring guitarist Jimmy Bennett on rhythm guitars, and lastly Mat Madiro on drums.

As the set was about to begin, the band had such a dramatic introduction due to the screens displaying an old Sony display of a video game. In the retro video game, it showed ‘From Ashes To New Blackout Tour.. Press Start”. It gave both myself and the audience some nostalgia to the old Nintendo games I used to play while I was a child. It honestly felt like I was living in a video game. After the screen pressed start, the lights went dark, filling the room with anticipation. Soon enough all the members made their appearance on stage bursting into the room with immense chaos and energy. Case and Brandyberry hyped up the crowd and started the set with “Armageddon” in which the instrumentals suited the retro theme of the tour. Dowdle wore a samurai mask that had a knife going across through the mask. The changes of the masks he wears throughout the set leaves so much suspicion and mystery to the performance. On the member’s bodies, they all had their arms and necks painted black to suit the name of the tour being “Blackout”. They all had their tattoos covered up in black paint which was very amazing to look at.

From Ashes To New crafted such a banger of a setlist; performing newer songs from the Blackout album as well as older hits such as “Through it All”, “Panic”, “Scars That I’m Hiding” and more. Their set left those from Sayreville and out with such wonderful memories to look back on. Throughout the set, both Danny and Matt kept giving speeches out to the crowd and cracking some jokes here and there, bringing such wonderful smiles to the crowd. The band took a moment to appreciate SiriusXM Octane for putting the tour together and talked about the accomplishments they have achieved in life, such as Danny getting married and buying a house to Matt expecting a newborn baby into the new year. The looks on everybody’s faces in the crowd was one to remember; all the smiles and cheers the band received from their fans. I honestly started to tear up a little bit because seeing those bands making their way to the top over the years and all the hard work and dedication they put in. As their set was coming near to an end, fans in the crowd kept chanting “ONE MORE HOUR!” meaning they want the band to go over curfew and just continue playing, but unfortunately that was unable to happen.

Once the last song was finished, the band left the stage. If people were checking the time, they all knew the show as not finished yet. Matt talks into the microphone to the crowd “Okay we get it, you want more? We hear you Sayreville and we will give you more as you please”. Since Thanksgiving just passed, everybody is preparing for the celebration of Christmas. Before this tour started, fans were in demand that they perform their Mariah Carey cover of "All I Want For Christmas Is You”; of course they had to give the fans what they wanted. This cover has blown up all over music streaming platforms, leaving the song with over 600k streams worldwide. Out of all the metal covers I’ve heard of this song, this one beats all the others. Case’s vocal range for this cover is too perfect, but yet I would never have expected them to make a metal cover of this song. Fans of all ages came together for this song and the amount of crowd surfers I lifted during this song was insane. After the song was over, Case made another speech thanking fans for blowing this song up all over streaming platforms and made a joke on how he would never expect himself to ever do a Mariah Carey cover in his life. Finally to close the night, the band performs their old classic hit “Through It All”. The band commanded for those in the pit to crowd surf repeatedly. I was debating on crowd surfing but I got caught lifting everybody up which was probably my workout for the year! From Ashes To New in Sayreville was such a wonderful experience. Last time I saw this band was when they opened for Memphis May Fire last year and I’m so glad to see a sold out headlining show from them. I hope to catch them for future shows and hopefully get the chance to photograph them in the future.