If you’ve kept up with the rock scene in Northern Colorado for the past several years, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Plasma Canvas. And, if you’ve happened to be fortunate enough, you’ve had the outfit rock you to your bones live on stage in one iteration or another.
Now, with their newly-born full-length debut “Dusk“ out in the wild, the energy and sheer brilliance of Plasma Canvas have been unleashed upon the world in a big way.
Plasma Canvas is the brainchild of vocalist, guitarist, and chief songwriter Adrienne Rae Ash and according to Ash herself, ‘Dusk’ is nothing short of a culmination of her “life’s work.”
Released on February 17th, “Dusk” takes listeners on a journey through grief, hope, heartache, joy, and to quote Ash, “rigorous honesty,” all while showcasing the band’s range through top-notch songwriting doused in a refined yet brutal punk rock attitude.
The album starts off with “Hymn,” a delicate ballad about losing a loved one, but the delicacy is quickly shoved aside as if it’s been thrown into a circle pit. The record ebbs and flows while consistently maintaining catchy melodies, blistering intensity, and subjects that give the listeners a wide-open window into Ash’s very soul.
Recorded at the legendary Blasting Room in Fort Collins, “Dusk” was not only a long time in the making, but the band was put to the test via a series of obstacles and, according to Ash, “suffered for this art.”
The album feels like a movie, with a definite beginning, middle, and end. Listeners see the film’s metaphorical main character see a light at the end of the tunnel with “Blistered World,” experience a sweaty mosh with “Need,” and the story comes to a roaring climax with the title track, a building magnum opus 10 years in the making that clocks in at over eight minutes.
With this latest album, it’s more than apparent that Plasma Canvas is a band that has had something burning inside, desperate to be released, and with “Dusk,” it not only has, but something feels like this is only the beginning.
