REVIEW: Awaywithroses - Weaving Together My Afterlife [EP/2026]
Artist: Awaywithroses
Album: Weaving Together My Afterlife - EP
Is it screamo worship with breakdowns, or metalcore with a penchant for melody and atmosphere? Is it incredibly smart mosh music, or mosh music that makes the rare jaunt into cerebral territory? Is it A Way With Roses, or Away With Roses? I don’t portend to have the answers to any of these questions—but the fact that you’ll find yourself asking yourself these the first time you hit play on Weaving Together My Afterlife is a stalwart testament to the music itself. A head-on collision of brazen and unafraid aggression with razor sharp twangs and moody overtones of DIY screamo, Awaywithroses stand robustly with their sophomore EP and latest entry into the ever-growing family tree of projects with Serration at its roots. Equal parts hot-blooded aggression and placid melancholy, Weaving Together My Afterlife is an insightful and immolating slice of metalcore that stands out as a true genre-blending experience in a world where, increasingly, bands that promise that result are often unable to stick the landing.
It probably isn’t total coincidence that Awaywithroses exist as an offshoot of Serration and that serrated is an ideal way to describe their sound. Grisly, frantic fretwork gnashes and tears at the listener overtop a canvas of pummeling, frenzied drumming and harsh, strung out vocals from the first seconds of “A Departure from Heaven.” That energy propels the brief EP forward, constantly winding in and out of ruthless, riveting breakdowns and blistering, almost barren-sounding harsh sonic soundscapes that channel the band’s tendencies towards screamo and late 90s emo. “The Counterbalance of Transience” is an outstanding example of the band’s more frantic approach to metalcore—with vocals that truly sound desperate braying over harsh panic chords, splashy cymbal work and dense kick drum bombardments. Even the conclusion to an otherwise mellow (or maybe melancholic) closing number, “To Effect and Be Affected” imparts more than a tongue-in-cheek syntax lesson in its title, highlighting just how eclectic—yet precise—Awaywithroses are capable of being. “Carrion King” is another abrasive entry in their resume, opening with a onslaught of vocal-forward hostility that evolves and balances throughout the track’s moderate runtime before fading out with an ear-grinding, slow-burning hum of feedback.
But wait! Weaving Together My Afterlife isn’t all grinding, chugging guitars, harsh yells and panic chords! Where Awaywithroses aren’t actively hammering down on the listener with chugs and explosive percussion, they weigh down heavily on them using oppressive atmosphere and bleak, forlorn melancholy. Sections of “Carrion King” and “The Counterbalance of Transience” highlight the former—disparate, dissonant chords roar, sawing away at the listener in a way that is every bit as intense as the band’s kiloton breakdowns, but in a very different way. Then, there’s the album closer, “To Effect and Be Affected,” that very slowly and ominously builds into a crushing emo-turns-screamo masterwork, with a cold and blistering bitterness that emulates an unforgiving Alberta winter. Vocals ebb and flow to meet the demands set forth by stunning instrumentation—and even if the more melancholic elements feel somewhat under explored, they shine, utilized in a way many contemporary metalcore bands fall woefully short with.
I can’t really answer any of the questions posed in the lede—largely because the answer to them is probably just “yes” (outside of the name—it’s an Alexisonfire situation that I just didn’t research, forgive me). Emphasizing the smart and careful elements of Witchcraft to prove that those moments were no accident while still being able to channel chaos and unrelenting aggression with the best of them, Weaving Together My Afterlife is another brief but sweltering slab of nostalgic, inventive metalcore that beautifully weaves screamo, emo and the bone-chilling hostility of a Northwest Canadian winter into its DNA, making it an outstanding and unique sonic experience.
8.5/10
For Fans Of: Serration, Cauldron, Jerome’s Dream, Saetia
Connor Welsh