FROM ASHES TO NEW's 'Reflections' Album Due Out April 17; New Song "Villain" Out Today
 | Fri, January 30, 2026 at 7:14 PM |
For years, FROM ASHES TO NEW (@FromAshesToNew) has captured the hearts and minds of music listeners worldwide, making impact with a distinctive amalgam of alt metal combined with songs that bracingly capture their generation's anxieties. They're a band that doesn't run from the darkness but instead embrace it. The Lancaster, PA band's streaming figures are in the billions, they've successfully sold-out tours, and performed alongside some of the biggest names in rock. With their next album REFLECTIONS-out April 17 via Better Noise Music-Danny Case (vocals), Matt Brandyberry (vocals), Lance Dowdle (guitar), Maty Madiro (drums), and Jimmy Bennett (guitar) have created 12 songs that brim with even more confidence and power than before. Today (January 30), they've released the album's third song, the potent "Villain."
On "Villain," rather than singing from the perspective of the person who knows their partner is so bad for them that it's toxic but they still stick around. Vocalist Matt Brandyberry flips the perspective. Here, he takes the other person's viewpoint.
"'Villain' is a story about the magnetic pull between two people who know better, but dive in anyway," says Brandyberry. "It's the moment when desire outweighs consequences, when you choose the chaos you swear you shouldn't want, and the 'bad guy' becomes the one voice you can't quiet. The song leans into that dark, intoxicating tension where temptation feels like truth, danger feels like comfort, and the line between thrill and destruction disappears. It's not about saving each other...it's about surrendering to the part of yourself you pretend doesn't exist."
The 12-track REFLECTIONS will mark the follow-up to 2023's BLACKOUT, which achieved the #1 spot on several iTunes and Spotify Rock and Metal charts across the globe. Two songs from REFLECTIONS were released last year: "New Disease," an unflinching song about the dangers of trend jumping (listen HERE, watch HERE), followed by the sonically intense and lyrically harrowing "Drag Me" (listen HERE, watch HERE). The latter track is the album's first song to go to radio and is just getting started on its run up the charts.
By late 2023, FROM ASHES TO NEW was at a creative crossroads. The group wrapped up demos for 16 songs for what was to be its fifth studio album. However, instead of sprinting towards the finish line and completing the record, the band decided to scrap those demo sessions. The process went against everything FROM ASHES TO NEW did before. Usually, they'd have a set number of songs they'd go into the studio with, record those songs, and maybe have one or two left over. Scrapping a session and mainly starting anew (they kept two songs) was liberating.
When FROM ASHES TO NEW scrapped those sessions, the band collectively knew they had to make something that remained true to their traditional sound yet broadened the tent to capture the ears and focus of a fresh audience. In this case, it means furthering the sound into alt-metal.
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The band's previous album, 2023's BLACKOUT, was a step in getting there and one that the band is proud of. However, this time around, FROM ASHES TO NEW has loftier expectations and goals. "I wanted to take what we are good at and push it even further," Brandyberry says. "That was the process for this whole record." As always, the band continues to forge a strong bond with its fans. "I think it's better to let people know we're right there with them and feel the same way," he continues. "Just because we have a cool job doesn't mean that life isn't hard."
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