It is the call you never want to get. Losing a friend to a car crash just comes so sudden. This was the case for the surviving members of Jacksonville band Yashira when 24-year-old Seth Howard, their drummer, lost his life in a collision near Gainesville in late 2018.
The band's first album, Shrine, had been released in spring that year.
Taking time to manage their grief, the band now presses forward. They call the second album, Fail to Be, “a tribute to Seth’s memory."
Having recruited Ryan O’Neal for drums the band is whole again, if with heartache. Dylan Mikos (guitar/vocals), Conor Anderson (guitar/vocals), and Luke Barber (bass/vocals), complete the lineup.
When asked what genre they consider themselves the band replied “we like to tap into many different areas but would narrow it down by saying post-metal/sludge.”
I would settle closer to the 'post-metal' title with straightforward moments reminiscent of classic metal juxtaposed beside more modern, complex, mathy riffs.
I hear in it moments that remind me of Colonial Wound’s Untitled album, perhaps because obvious-influence, Mikos, shreds and screams there as well. I’m also reminded of bands like Portrayal of Guilt, Old Man Gloom, and Trap Them.
The process for the new album, Yashira says, included taking about 5 months to re-group following Seth’s untimley passing. It was during this time that they recruited O’Neal. They then began reworking and rewriting “to a degree” the songs for Fail to Be.
The album, recorded at Silver Bullet Studios in Burlington, Connecticut by Greg Thomas (Misery Signals, The Risk Taken) is something the band says they’ve put everything into and are proud of. As with all they’ve put forth previous to this release, it takes only moments for you to recognize that proud is something they absolutely should be.
Looking back at their last live show in November 2018 with Gillian Carter in Savannah, Georgia, one can only hope there is again a time in which we may bear witness to such a heavy, earth-shaking set live.
Until the time when COVID-19 is all but a memory, be sure to listen to Fail to Be wherever you stream your sounds and support with a purchase of merch or music at Good Fight Music.
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Tagged: yashira
