Released in December 2025 the As It Is Above, So It Is Below EP by Hertforshire Heavy Rock outfit Before The Sirens cocks an ear toward both devastating heaviness and compelling accessibility. The result is an immersive collection of tracks that showcase the band’s evolution: heavy breakdowns, rich harmonic textures, and lyrical themes that grapple with struggle, transcendence, and personal revelation.

Singer/guitarist Alun Davies from the band now joins us for a Why I Love on American metalcore band The Ghost Inside

A FORTUITOUS AFFAIR

My love affair with The Ghost Inside began somewhat fortuitously. I was playing a gig in Milton Keynes at the Sno! Bar as part of a metal night with my then band, Glass Artery. The show had been put on by a dude called Nils (shout out by the way, he was sound!!) and he was doing the sound for the bands and also was DJing before the show and between bands. My focus was drawn to his track choices as it was a brutally heavy collection of tunes, the likes of which I hadn’t heard before. I was introduced to a number of bands that night; Whitechapel, Emmure, Hacktivist and a band that I would continue to listen to on repeat and talk about constantly in the coming months and years; The Ghost Inside.

The track I heard that night, was Engine 45 from the Get What You Give LP, and what a track that is. Full of aggression and hardcore energy that gives way to an anthemic outro that I immediately loved on first listen. That album must have spent hundreds of hours on my playlist as I travelled the country for my day job and, when it arrived, their follow up album, Dear Youth received the same treatment.

FEARING THE WORST

I didn’t manage to get out to see them live at this point as money and personal circumstance made it difficult to get to the shows they did play in the UK. Turns out my chance would have to wait an awfully long time.

In late November 2015 my social media feeds were flooded with reports of a fatal bus accident involving band and from the initial reports and pictures, I feared the worst. It isn’t my story to tell, but the events of that night are horrific and resulted in serious injuries to several band members, as well as the death of their bus driver and the driver of the truck also involved in the collision. Drummer, Andrew, would ultimately lose his leg and the effects of the accident on the other members must have been horrendous. The stories they have told in subsequent interviews are traumatic in the extreme and this coupled with the fall out in the media would shape the sound and lyrical content of the band in the coming years.

Incredibly, their drummer would learn to play again using a device his Dad designed and built to allow him to play double bass drum properly and the band began sharing news of rehearsals and writing in 2018. What was to follow, in my opinion, was one of the most gut-wrenchingly heartfelt releases I have ever heard and still ranks firmly in my top 5 albums to this day.

SETTING THE TONE

The lead single Aftermath from their fan-funded self titled album set the tone for an album of trauma, gratitude and absolute rage, the likes of which, I have yet to heard again since. It tells the story of a group of friends who came face to face with death, came back from the brink and proved the nay-sayers wrong.

That album came at the point when Before The Sirens were in our very early stages of defining our own sound and to say it was instrumental in the heavy, riff based nature of our music and our love of a breakdown, is an understatement. They are listed in our top 5 influences for very, very good reason. Pressure Point still stands as the angriest song I have ever heard and is a personal favourite that I revisit often when I am in need of blowing off some steam!

I have been lucky enough to see them a few times since their return, most notably at a secret gig in Wolverhampton on their recent tour with Bad Omens. They are a force to be reckoned with on stage to say the least, but their is a collective understanding of how lucky they are to be alive that brings positivity and humility to a hugely talented band and one that I will continue to follow with interest for as long as they continue to do what they do best.

Our thanks to Alun for a fascinating insight into an inspirational band.

Here’s As It Is Above:

You can read more from our extensive archive of Why I Love pieces from a wide array of artists on an even wider array of subjects, here.

Before The Sirens: Website

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