Review Summary: How do you knock out an era-defining sophomore release like this?
Tricky second album syndrome did not really exist back at the heart and regime of metal founders. It was usually a first record that would lead onto a second and intertlink a third, to build a sturdy career. A pathway would be conclusive on the first album, successively branching off into either a thriving cue of productions or becoming one of those bands that people knew would find themselves stuck in a simulated rut. Those who succeeded however, were to come across an untangled follow-up, ladened to the push of a crowd with new hopes. This is the case for, Arsis, an American Melodic Death Metal band who have left behind Trash and Black Metal roots, but who returned with a debut album “The Celebration of Guilt” which called for new hardcore lurkers to loosen their prey. That album was indeed the finer feast, and to everyone’s great surprise, Arsis followed up with their sophomore release, an EP which hid the band behind a 20:02 minute compilation, but which turned out to be too scarce of a refuge.
And so to the apprehension about
A Diamond For Disease, a casual slip in the bands humble discography which instantly appealed to all cognitive fans of the likes of death metal. Teasingly, it features a mere third of an hour of some of the best that the band, even the entire genre has to offer. The EP never ceases to impress, compressed into an assault of brutal overlapping riffs with lead guitars that meticulously shed light on their technical virtuosity. Embodying the epic and the most indulgent of emotion, the technical guitar riffing and complex leads tatter these aforementioned with sin and a blatant contrast. Songwriter John Malone created a poignant example of his capabilities, which even through their close to 13 minute title-track, never ceases to spark interest. If you loved
The Celebration of Guilt, then you’ll be struck by its successor, which rearranges all the previous elements to make a head banging roller-coaster which is simple but intricate per se.
What could be the upward stroke in conducting (upbeat), or the sheer attribute of silence have created equivocal approaches to the actual word Arsis. To leave things on that note, both definitions mean nothing, yet something in the way Arsis chooses to compose their songs. The musical aspects and the intention are two controversial facets. If a panorama flings itself on our average neo-metalhead head banging, what Arsis really intend to do may not come across musically, yet what is on the outside is only half the experience. Lyrically, “Let’s make a deal, a diamond for disease” always got to me. It was simple, but struck me right there. I don’t know if it was Malone’s translucid, living-skeleton voice which made it sound so inevitable, like a huge thrust against the wall, but I knew from there that the lyrics were innovative and could not be portray irony better. Even so, the whole structure is an oxymoron. Their technical manner of being Arsis, is different from the Arsis they want to convey. Oh, wait, that first Arsis is “upbeat”, and that one right there is “silence”. Silence can have many connotations, but once it reigns, it is a clasp of emotion which confines one to its very core. But, unexpectedly given the grubby subject matter, silence is what encompasses us, while everything we conform to is the nihility which abundantly fills our world. This state of “everything” is what gives us room to release our true emotion, just like Arsis, the band, does.
Oh well, one would say, as I quickly gasp for air from my long sentiment embargo. Every band is somehow emotional! Yes, some more than others, and I would have to concede that this particular one isn’t the most emotional, but just as you are struck by the album and begin to unlock the profound subtleties that lay within it, so does the music. Melodically, Arsis does exactly the same thing, making you vulnerable, as you feel the rapid-fire riffs stumble in and the song begins grasping you and opening you up firmly like a pair of thick, stretchy maternity pants. You can only succumb to its force.
Clocking in at a skimpy 20 minutes, the band have really restrained themselves from expanding upon the three bellicose tracks, or rather from making more and elaborating upon that album. An EP like this could give off several impressions, for one, it could be construed as a lets-never-talk-about-this album production. As this is coincidently their best album up-to-date, it is really shame that their pinnacle work is so irritably short and confined to the length that has been mentioned. However, let us hope this is just an experiment which has yielded results, and Arsis is planning to work off it to come out with a longer, perhaps better album. Nonetheless, illustrating such a piquant catchy-ness is almost worth a perfect score. What’s not to like; Arsis fans are now hailed with 3 brilliant which are streaked with intelligence and contrived ingenuity, striped with emotional light and shade; and cutting them this good will only have you dumbfounded within the first few listens.
