There has been a hell of a lot of change in the From Ashes To New camp since Australian audiences finally got their first taste of the Pennsylvania heavyweights at Good Things Festival in 2024.
For starters, there is another album in the arsenal. Reflections, the fifth full-length from From Ashes To New, arrived earlier this year and has continued a run that has seen the band grow from outsiders smashing together rock, metal, hip hop and electronics into one of the most recognisable names in modern heavy music. “Drag Me” even delivered something that felt long overdue, giving From Ashes To New their first number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart.
Now there is another milestone waiting.
This October, From Ashes To New return to Australia, but this time Matt Brandyberry and company aren’t squeezing themselves into a festival set. They are finally coming back as headliners, bringing Banks Arcade along for a four-date run through Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.
When I caught up with Matt for Crannk ahead of the tour, there was a sense that the timing couldn’t be much better. From Ashes To New are coming off a huge year, Reflections is firing, and after waiting so bloody long just to get here in the first place, the band finally gets the opportunity to show Australian fans what a proper From Ashes To New headline show looks like.
FROM HOPING FOR AUSTRALIA TO FINALLY HEADLINING IT
There is a pretty cool full-circle element to this Australian run.
Going right back to the Day One era in 2016, Matt was already being asked by Australian media whether From Ashes To New might eventually make the trip down here. His answer back then was basically that he hoped to God it would happen.
It took another eight years before we finally got them.
Good Things Festival 2024 changed that, introducing From Ashes To New to Australian audiences at a time when Blackout had already pushed the band into another stage of their career. Two years later, Matt is coming back to a very different situation.
The band now knows there is an audience waiting.
That was one of the things Matt seemed genuinely excited about when we spoke. Good Things gave plenty of people their first introduction to From Ashes To New, while the continued success of Blackout and now Reflections has given Australian listeners another couple of years to properly get inside the catalogue.
Instead of trying to win over a festival crowd that may only know a song or two, they are returning to rooms full of people who have specifically bought a ticket to see them.
And importantly, they’re bringing a headline set.
Anyone who has watched a band try to cram years of material into a 30 or 40-minute festival or support slot knows how different that beast can be. A headline show gives From Ashes To New the space to stretch out, bring more of Reflections into the set and reach further back through the records that Australian fans have never had the chance to experience properly.
Considering how long we waited to get them here, it feels about bloody time.
REFLECTIONS COULD HAVE BEEN A VERY DIFFERENT ALBUM
The journey into Reflections might be even more interesting than the finished record itself.
From Ashes To New had already gone deep into what would become album number five. Around sixteen songs had been demoed, and in another version of events that collection could have simply become the follow-up to Blackout.
The problem wasn’t that the material was necessarily bad.
Matt explained that the problem was evolution.
The songs felt too much like a continuation of what the band had already done. If they had kept going down that road, in his eyes they would essentially have made Blackout 2.0.
And let’s be fair, plenty of people probably would have been completely happy with that. Blackout connected in a massive way, so repeating the formula would hardly have been the most dangerous commercial decision in the world.
But that isn’t what From Ashes To New wanted.
For Matt, Lance Dowdle, Danny Case, Maty Madiro and Jimmy Bennett, moving forward means maintaining the identity that people recognise while refusing to let that identity become a cage. The guitars, rap, melody, screaming, electronics and massive choruses can all remain part of the DNA without every record needing to be a carbon copy of the one before it.
That decision meant being willing to step away from a pile of work they had already invested themselves in and find the record they actually wanted to make.
The result was Reflections.
STOP TRYING TO FIT THE FUCKING FORMULA
That willingness to trust themselves has become one of the defining threads running through the band’s recent records.
Matt sees Blackout as an important turning point. Rather than worrying endlessly about whether something matched expectations, From Ashes To New started approaching the music with a much simpler mentality: make what they wanted to make and deal with the outcome afterwards.
That attitude carried directly into Reflections.
Over the years there have inevitably been outside opinions about what From Ashes To New should sound like, how much rapping there should be, how much screaming belongs in the songs and what might work best within a particular radio format. The further Matt went into our conversation, the clearer it became that following those instructions isn’t where the band does its best work.
As he put it during our chat, “Artists are artists, and they should be allowed to create art.”
That’s really the heart of it.
Once the aim becomes filling in somebody else’s boxes, it becomes increasingly difficult for the finished song to feel completely genuine. Blackout channelled much of the frustration and bottled-up emotion surrounding the COVID period, while Reflections turned the lens back onto From Ashes To New themselves, their career and where they could become better.
Then “Drag Me” came along and landed at number one.
There is something beautifully fitting about that. After years of hearing opinions about what should or shouldn’t be part of From Ashes To New, one of the biggest songs of their career arrived after the band doubled down on trusting their own instincts.
THE BIGGEST LESSON WAS SOMETHING THEY ALREADY KNEW
For all the reflection that went into the album, Matt doesn’t necessarily see the process as uncovering some hidden truth about himself or the band.
It was more about remembering something they had lost sight of along the way.
From Ashes To New can write.
From Ashes To New can produce.
And they don’t need to constantly look outside the five people already standing in the room for somebody to provide the missing ingredient.
Matt was careful not to frame that as rejecting collaboration. Working with other producers, writers and creative minds can still bring new ideas into a record and, importantly, can be fun. But there is a big difference between collaborating because somebody brings something exciting to the table and believing you need an outsider to make your band better.
Making Reflections seems to have reinforced their confidence in what they already have.
Matt is far more than the bloke handling the rap side of From Ashes To New. Production, songwriting and multiple instruments have long been part of what he brings into the band, and the same depth of ability exists throughout the current lineup.
Rather than reinventing themselves by throwing away their identity, Reflections became about trusting that identity enough to push it somewhere new.
And right now, Matt reckons From Ashes To New are in one hell of a good place.
The music is working. Touring is working. The band’s presence online is working. The creative side is flowing.
Sometimes everything just clicks.
FIVE ALBUMS MAKES FOR ONE HELL OF A SETLIST PROBLEM
Of course, there is one downside to having five albums and more songs connecting with people than ever before.
You somehow have to choose what the fuck you’re going to play.
That problem became painfully obvious when From Ashes To New recently headed out with Shinedown. With only around 30 minutes to work with each night, even established songs had to disappear as the band worked out the best possible snapshot of themselves to put in front of new listeners.
Australia won’t have that problem.
This time they’re the headliner.
With Day One, The Future, Panic, Blackout and Reflections all sitting behind them, Matt admits putting together a set has become increasingly difficult. There will always be somebody wanting a particular deep cut, somebody wanting the earlier material and somebody who discovered From Ashes To New through the newest record.
Unless they’re suddenly playing three-hour Springsteen sets, not everybody is getting everything.
But after the shortened experience Australian audiences received at Good Things, having From Ashes To New control the room and the set length opens things up considerably.
We should finally get to hear what five albums of From Ashes To New sounds like when the band has enough time to tell the story properly.
BANKS ARCADE WERE THE EASY CHOICE
Joining From Ashes To New across the country will be New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based genre wreckers Banks Arcade.
It is a pairing that makes plenty of sense. Both bands have built their own identities by refusing to treat heavy music like it comes with a rigid rulebook, pulling different sounds into their orbit rather than worrying about whether everything fits neatly underneath one genre tag.
Interestingly, Matt wasn’t particularly familiar with Banks Arcade before the potential Australian supports were sent through.
That didn’t last long.
Once he started listening through the options, the reaction was immediate. Banks Arcade were the one.
Considering the amount of energy both bands bring into a room, it’s a bloody strong combination for these shows and another reason this return feels considerably different from the band’s first Australian visit.
FROM ASHES TO NEW ARE COMING BACK ON THEIR OWN TERMS
Ten years after Matt Brandyberry was sitting on the other side of the world hoping From Ashes To New might eventually reach Australia, the band is coming back as a headliner.
A lot has happened between those two points.
Lineups have changed. Five albums have arrived. Their sound has expanded without losing the things that made From Ashes To New recognisable in the first place, and Reflections has reinforced something particularly important at this point in their career: they don’t need to chase somebody else’s idea of what this band should be.
Australian fans finally get to see the result this October.
Good Things was the introduction.
Now we get the full thing.
Watch my full conversation with Matt Brandyberry from From Ashes To New as we get into Reflections, why the original version of album five was abandoned, the success of “Drag Me”, trusting themselves as writers and producers, the nightmare of building a five-album setlist and finally coming back to Australia as headliners.
And when I handed Matt the last word, he didn’t exactly reach for the standard promotional speech.
“If you’re not an asshole, thank you for being a good person.”
Can’t really argue with that.
FROM ASHES TO NEW — AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2026
With Special Guests Banks Arcade
Friday 9 October — Factory Theatre, Sydney
Sydney Tickets
Sunday 11 October — 170 Russell, Melbourne
Melbourne Tickets
Tuesday 13 October — Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide
Adelaide Tickets
Thursday 15 October — The Triffid, Brisbane
Brisbane Tickets
Tickets and full tour information:
Destroy All Lines — From Ashes To New Australian Tour
Reflections is out now via Better Noise Music.
