Asylum Road closed their 2025 with a very uncompromising single, ‘Mask of Oblivion’. The track’s mix of metalcore and hardcore with a pinch of death metal darkness left nothing to chance in terms of overall heaviness.

Kicking into 2026, their current offering ‘Cut To The Bone’ is a touch more accessible in places, but certainly no less heavy. The opening riff is immense: instead of dropping straight into the expected metalcore groove, the band chooses instead to crush their audience with a slow, deep toned grind pushing the guitar and bass parts to the fore. The move into the verse brings more of the expected pneumatics, occasionally making drummer Eithan Murray sound like a genuine force of nature, but there’s still a strong focus on more of a groove metal tone. This not only suits the musicians brilliantly, but creates a very natural sounding backdrop for Darryn McCartney’s hardcore infused roar.

Factor in a huge sounding chorus and, for most bands, that would be more than enough to sustain a brilliantly heavy four minutes, but these Northern Irish lads have a little more technical heaviness up their collective sleeve. Firstly, somewhere around the mid point of a superb track, the heavy groove shifts up a couple of gears and demonstrates how effortlessly guitarist Paul Sandy can drop into a classic thrash riff, and at the close of the track, Asylum Road even make time for an intense doom riff, coupling an extreme heaviness and funereal tempo with a guttural roar to bring a pinch of death metal.

Asylum Road don’t aim to win the hearts of a huge crowd of metal lovers who have more melodic interests. With its shifting style and complex nature, ‘Cut To The Bone’ might not even click with those metalcore fans with a more purist attitude, but its selection of always heavy and often varied riffs sound immense throughout.

‘Mask of Oblivion’ gained Asylum Road some very positive online press, but this is definitely a single that deserves to gain even more traction.

Take a listen to ‘Cut To The Bone’ below.