The Welcoming - Decayed | Remade

The Welcoming

Decayed | Remade
​self-released; 2021

​3.8 out of 5 

By My Nguyen​

At the helm of Ashville, NC’s The Welcoming is James Ferrell. Ferrell is releasing his latest album Decayed | Remade, a 12-track collection that sees the artist exploring everything from post-rock, hardcore, metal, math rock, prog rock and everything in between. From demented screams to full-on belting out the lyrics, Ferrell’s vocals draws you in and his instrumentals also clamor to the spotlight, with long-raging guitars, rhythms-heavy bass lines and demented drums. At times feeling old school with odes to Thrice, Taking Back Sunday, A Perfect Circle, Incubus, Tool and more, Ferrell definitely reels you in with his amped sound. 

Decayed | Remade gets going with “Orchestrators Of War.” The sound packs in tons of reverberation. Next, the guitars and bass lines grow more adamant for a great heavy rock sound. I saw bits of metal and prog rock in the mixture. Once Ferrell’s vocals enter, listeners will be greeted by his full-throttle energy. The adamancy continues on “Mountain Heir.” As Ferrell’s vocals enter, you can feel the synergy of the instrumentals come alive. I enjoyed the delivery and energy of this song. On “Snakeholder.” Ferrell’s vocals draw you in closer to the blast of energy. 

Drums and a full-on sound continue on “Revived.” The revving sounds are in-your-face and adamant. Ferrell’s voice is clean and straightforward. Changing up the vibe on “The Scourge of Normalcy” to more mellow guitar riffs, Ferrell sings with feeling on this slow burning song. Taking its time in unfolding, the tune meanders for a bit. A jaunty drumming beat addressed the start of “Righteous.” Next, more adamant guitars reels in a heavy and hard rock vibe. 

On “Obsidian,” the music slowly grows in volume, climaxing in a full-throttle sound at the start of this number. The guitars and drums rev it up for a driven and energized sound. Ferrell’s overdubbed vocals create a layered effect. On “The Zealous And The Blind,” a blitz of instrumentals come in for an overwhelming vibe. I greatly enjoyed the odes to hard rock and metal here. Great energy from start to finish. Some sparse guitar riffs sound out on “Final Operation.” The synths add to the vibes. Ferrell sends us off with another resonating number. 

​As a solo musician, Ferrell handles everything on this project. I give him props for doing everything himself as the tasks must get overwhelming after a while. Ferrell says that for now, the project is solo, and I can definitely see him handing out other instrumental parts to other like-minded musicians for a more full-on sound. For the most part, Ferrell caters to the metal, prog, math rock, and hardcore genres. He sounds a lot like bands coming from the ‘90s and ‘00s who lean on big energy and a hard rock sound. I look forward to seeing new music from this artist soon.

Become A Fan

Tweet