From Ashes to New, “Blackout.”

Pennsylvania rap-rockers From Ashes to New looked to the past for their fourth album, but not how fans might expect. Sonically, the band tapped into the stylistic hard rock that launched it in 2016 with Day One, but it has framed the new record as a conceptual prequel to that album. Blackout thrives on electronics, heavy riffs, big hooks, screams and rhymes. The band hoists a dual vocal attack with Danny Case singing and Matt Brandyberry rapping.

Blackout offers an eclectic stew of early 2000s influences. Linkin Park is the obvious reference point given the band’s rap-rock proclivity, but there’s a lot more happening here. Toss in a dash of Papa Roach, a pinch of Atreyu and even a little emo and pop-punk. The recipe is ultimately winning, offering up a familiar but fresh take on hard rock. Recorded at the height of the pandemic in 2020—around the time the band released Panic—it encapsulates the musical urgency that reflected the uncertainty of the time.

Opener “Heartache” attacks right out of the gate, fusing rap and rock with big hooks and brutal screams.

“You can daydream/ But you can’t erase or replace me/ You’re crazy to think you can relate to what made me,” Brandyberry raps with Case screaming behind him. The song is a natural to get crowds moving or singing along. “Nightmare” doubles down on the formula, with some extra intensity to go around, mixing in a Hollywood-Undead-esque swagger. Case is a versatile vocalist. His range is on display here as he adeptly shifts from singing to unrelenting aggressive screams.

Some tracks, like anthemic emo banger “Hate Me Too,” push the synths and rhymes to the side.

“I wish I hated you/ You should hate me too,” both vocalists sing in harmony.

The atmospheric “Hope You’re Happy” adds more melody to the verses before escalating back to the heaviness on the chorus and bridge. “Barely Breathing” shape-shifts from a synth-heavy mid-tempo nu-metal power ballad into a soaring, fist-pumping rocker with one of the more memorable choruses on the album.

Looking at tracks individually, it’s easy to point out From Ashes to New’s influences.

The trudging, down-tuned guitar riffs of “Dead to Me” enter with a frantic assault and a Korn-esque heaviness. Case and Brandyberry play off each other well, trading vocals on the defiant song about a broken relationship. It’s breakdown serves up some of the heaviest moments on Blackout.

Brandyberry does much of the heavy lifting on the rap-centric heavy grooves of “Monster In Me.”

“Why does every situation have to be a do or die?” Brandyberry asks.

“Echoes” keeps up to the soft-to-loud dynamic, but with a greater focus on melody and atmospherics. The band makes sure that when the chorus hits, it’s going to be memorable and singable for fans. The anger and urgency on “Armageddon” most closely fits the lyrical concept of “pre-apocalyptic” times.

Blackout leaves little time to catch your breath. The hard-driving “Legacy” explodes over the speakers. The band recruited Matty Mullins of Memphis Mayfire for the feisty “Until We Break.”

“Follow the leader/ Into the fever/ One by one until we break,” Case sings.

If you expected From Ashes to New to close on a quiet note, you’d be very wrong. “Broken By Design” delivers some of the album’s heaviest and most driven moments. Overall, the album is a perfectly good serving of mosh-pit-ready hard rock that should resonate with existing fans and find some new ones.

Follow writer Mike DeWald at Twitter.com/mike_dewald.