Review Summary: A classic and potential album of the year.
Most bands who release a mediocre album and then release a good one afterward, then return to their old formula. But, Arsis did just the opposite. They took another direction. Arsis went for a very straightforward, rock influenced death metal sound and it worked. Arsis have managed to make what could potentially be album of the year.
So, this album starts off with "Forced To Rock", this song has a very opener feel to it. It moves along at a nice pace and it does its namesake because it ***ing rocks. It is very straightforward and rock-ish but, it has some very technical wanky riffs in it, but doesn't go over the top at all. Just some meedly meedlys thrown in. The song ends with the line "we are forced to..." and the next song A March For The Sick starts where the last song left off with a huge scream saying "ROOOCCCKKK!!!". And while you are saying in your mind "damn, that is ***ing cool," the song just moves along, other than the beginning, it just moves along until you reach the next song.
"From Soulless To Shattered" is one of the best songs on this album. It has this really catchy guitar hook in the chorus that makes it impossible not to fall in love with. And for some reason, the clarity of the lyrics in the chorus really complement the catchy hook. "Who's to say there's no art in dying?" After that comes another catchy tune, "Beyond Forlorn", I believe this song was the single that was released before the whole album was released. This song is good but, not one of the best on the album.
The next song is called "The Ten Of Swords". This is a pretty cool song. One thing I noticed that is really present in this song, is the lyrics refer back to older Arsis song titles. For example, the chorus of this song says "if we are the nightmare, I am the ten of swords." Arsis is known for their lyrics being about James Malone's personal demons so, the referring back to old songs is a cool effect showing some continuity.
Next come two masterpieces, the first one (and the better of the two) is "Closet To Cold". In this song, you can hear a little tinkle of black metal influence. Maybe that has something do with the name (you know, black metal, snow, cold, frost, etc.) But, this song has this recurring theme throughout the song that is extremely catchy and this is reprized in the very end of the song and harmonized. And I must say, this nearly brought me to tears. It is such a beautiful melody. One thing I love about death metal is there are certain bands who choose to make their music emotional rather than "look how fast I can play". Arsis does this so well. The only other band I can think of that does this that well is Death.
The next song is the second of the two masterpieces that have been grouped together, "Sick Perfection". This is the best way I can describe this album, what better way to describe the album using one of its own song titles? This song has a really cool, catchy chorus to it that will have you humming along days after you've heard this album. And then we have "Half Past Corpse O'Clock". This song will turn many people off because of the name but, it is definitely a great song. This shows that Arsis knows how to enjoy writing music and have fun with it by exploiting death metal's clichés. But, I'm sure, like every other Arsis song, this has some type of meaning to James.
As we come to the end of this album we have two songs left "Escape Artist" and "Sable Rising", respectively. These songs are aggressive and catchy, like the rest of the album. And the last song has this really wacky melody to it. And you need both sides of the speaker to hear both, there are like 2 different guitar riffs going at the same time.
Other than the individual songs, this album has many great qualities to it. The main one is REPLAY VALUE. I swear I could listen to this album 1000 times and never get tired of it, it is that good. And I know with the weird song titles and how much the previous album was mediocre, people will simply overlook this album but, trust me, PICK THIS ONE UP! It is worth it.
Best tracks
1. Closer To Cold
2. From Soulless To Shattered
3. Sick Perfection
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