Arsonists Get All The Girls - Hits From the Bow Review

Arsonists Get All The Girls Hits From the Bow

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Tracklist:
1. this time you're gonna get it dirty shirley
2. red meat & big trucks
3. scorbra vs. cupcake: battle of the buldge
4. shat shart tart
5. zombies ate my neighbors
6. jazzy geoffrey
7. sinsinatti
8. canadian unigog
9. limbo
10. city of angels cakewalk

Release Date: 2007

user rating

3.2
good

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On 5 Lists

1.5
very poor

Hardhat USER (6 Reviews)

2007-08-09 | 41 comments | 1,531 views

Summary: A bland mix of nu-grind, death/metalcore, and electronica, Hits From The Bow combines moronic song names and disjointed music to create a jumbled and incoherent mess of noise. The scene kid's avant-garde.

6 of 9 thought this review was well written

On paper, Arsonists Get All The Girls are seemingly a breath of fresh air to the new wave of 'deathcore' bands. In a genre characterized by breakdown-laden songs and recycled chug riffs, AGATG had so much to offer. Taking metalcore and mixing keyboard breaks and jazzy interludes, even adding in some technicality, Hits From The Bow seemed to have a good chance of sporting a collection of cutting edge and innovative songs. Okay, the song names are a little ridiculous, but the music will make up for that, right? All I wanted was something original and interesting, and what I got was an aimless and disconnected spazzfest of a CD.

AGATG seem to be a little confused. They are obviously trying to stand out from the crowd, doing their best to diversify the music with elements of jazz and electronica. Unfortunately, they also include the open chord riffs and breakdowns which groups them right back into the stagnant genre of metalcore. They also want to be taken seriously, yet their song titles and the sound samples throughout the CD are completely absent of any humor, and reek of immaturity. But what can you expect, when the average age of the band members is only 20? Still, with this talented group of young men I expected more.

The CD opens with This Time You're Gonna Get it Dirty Shirley, the first of ten songs that sound largely the same. There isn't much to describe about the individual songs, because they hardly differ from each other and the overall sound of the album. Chaotic blast beats and synth lines are buried under chugging guitar and either growling or screaming vocals. Occasionally, a flurry of keyboard effects or a jazzy interlude is used to bridge in between ideas during songs. These almost always make absolutely no sense in the context of the song, the only explanatinon being that these 20 year olds are apparently far too lazy to write transitions that actually flow. And bass? What bass? It hardly ever shows itself, except at times for the infrequent jazz interludes and less chaotic passages as heard in the first track.

The guitarwork is frequently boring and usually devoid of actual riffs. Relying heavily on breakdowns, the guitarists chug along through all ten songs using notes almost exclusively on the sixth string. But when they choose to break from the trend of mind-numbingly bland noise, some head turning and very catchy riffs emerge. Battle of The Bulge is probably the best example of this, showcasing impressive melodies and even some quasi-leads and harmonies. The keyboard has similar shining moments, adding interesting touches to songs that would normally seem uninspired, as heard in the last track, City of Angels Cakewalk. Unfortunately, none of the songs have any progression to them, and even the promising sections eventually fall back into the boring trend of the CD. The drummer displays some talent in his speedy fills and blast beats, but thats about all he does. Occasionally there is a jazz beat going on, but many times he just acts like a typical metal speedster at the kit.
And these guys are no lyrical geniuses either. One charming tidbit of lyrical idiocy comes from City of Angels Cakewalk:

*** blood
Everywhere on everything
Cum stains
Everywhere on everything
Forget the shave
Do it though anyway
But pierce the heart
Just as the glare pierced you and i
In the ghetto times
The better times

All in all, Hits From The Bow is a collection of 10 songs with no direction, progression, or passion in them; strings of riffs loosely held together by nonsensical bridges and interludes. Despite their best efforts, Arsonists Get All The Girls, though adding jazz and keyboard, fail to show why they should be recognized amongst the growing crowd of medio-core bands plaguing our music today. The best thing you can do is hope they come to their senses or turn your head and look elsewhere, because in a genre so extroardinarily deficient in originality, hope for redemption is fading fast.

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