I’ll cut to the chase: Ashes Remain are a new band who are basically a less annoying Kutless. In fact, minus the vocals, if you blindfolded me and played songs by this group alongside the likes of Red, Day Of Fire and the aforementioned Kutless, I’m not sure I’d be able to tell the difference. Which is not to say that What I’ve Become is awful, except of course when Ashes Remain channel their inner 3 Doors Down on songs like the soppy “Everything Good,” which is frankly unlistenable without cringing yourself to death.

When the band take off the handbrake, though, they manage a fairly decent hard rock sound. It actually becomes quite enjoyable when guitarist Rob Tahan lets loose his inner Kirk Hammet and shreds for a bit.

The album peaks when the band couple their Drop-D riffage with a glam-rock stomp on “End of Me,” and there are a few other moments that prove that Ashes Remain know their way around a decent rock chorus.

Whether that’s enough to garner them any attention in a music scene awash with similar sounding bands, though, remains to be seen.

Two and a half stars out of five