Also this issue: Disappearing Act How the Vanishing Peoples of the Earth materialized in Philadelphia. -Patrick Rapa suitespot -Peter Burwasser on Classical Spork in the Road Two vagabond electronic artists are tuning out and moving on. -A.D. Amorosi Palomar -Brian Howard Unsilent Night -A.D. Amorosi KlezKamp -Mary Armstrong Reviews -Patrick Rapa, Paul Burress and A.D. Amorosi Beat Box -Ain� Ardron-Doley

December 19-25, 2002

musicpicks

From Autumn to Ashes

The blood splotches soaking through the liner notes of From Autumn to Ashes' 2001 debut, Too Bad You're Beautiful (Ferret), may push its we're-heavier-than-thou-and-here-to-kill-you image to the point of self-parody, but the music screams for itself. Hardly hardcore in the Minor Threat sense of the term, FATA is punk rock tempered with melody and poisoned with punishing metal-core. Death and despair loom over the dynamic vocals of frontman Benjamin Perri and harmonious foil/drummer Francis Mark as the pair let demons out like a Goya painting. The band's time changes are dizzying, spinning from spastic and fierce to measured and soothing within seconds. The acoustic lament "Chloroform Perfume" (sung by Mark) and epic album-closer "Short Stories With Tragic Endings" (complete with singing from Melanie Wills and a weeping violin) break through the bedlam and keep the sound from becoming formulaic. Altogether, it's uncompromisingly brutal and beautiful.

Sun., Dec. 22, 7 p.m., $10, with A Static Lullaby, The Hope Conspiracy and Unearth, The Trocadero, 1003 Arch St., 215-922-LIVE.

—Andrew Parks