If great bands are more than the sum of their parts, none more so than A Perfect Circlle, the 1999-2006 partnership between Tool’s Maynard James Keenan and former Guns N’Roses/NIN guitar tech Billy Howerdel, who birthed two fantastic albums of lush, gothic rock melodrama to then dissolve when Keenan returned to Tool and his own new project Puscifer. ASHES dIVIDE is Billy Howerdel alone, helped out by the Official Drummer Of Everyone, Mr Josh Freese, ex-NIN man Danny Lohner and none other than Keenan’s 13-year-old son Devo on cello.

Of course there are plenty moments here which can’t help calling to mind APC, most noticeably Howerdel’s instantly recognisable shimmering guitar sound, and production-wise this debut sounds as huge and dense as you’d expect. Coming forth from under the shadow of the finest rock singer of his generation can have been no easy task and while Howerdel does a decent enough job at complementing these frequently haunting, stirring tracks of dark ’80s-yearning alt-rock with an adequate vocal accompaniment, his at-times reedy voice dosen’t always hit the mark. Defamed harks back to Smashing Pumpkins and Howerdel’s lovelorn persona, like Ad’s sound in general, is graced with a vague, indistinct quality fans of 30 Seconds To Mars, or even HIM may appriciate. Good in places.

Download: Stripped Away
For fans of: 30 Seconds To Mars, The Cure”