Arsis - Celebration Of Guilt
Where the hell did these guys come from? This record comes blasting out of the gates with the most technically proficient and mind numbingly complex death metal I've ever laid ears on and
never lets up for the entire rest of the album. Overall it reminds me heavily of genre defining Death with the all over the map guitar work punctuated with tons of classic guitar screams and solos backed by speed of light drumming but the songwriting here is even more complex, if that were possible. It's also a bit more melodic than Death as you can hear nods to the more melodic
European death metal bands sprinkled throughout but don't let that fool you. Pound for pound this stuff is more ferocious than anything I've ever heard in this genre.
The only thing I can see turning some people off is the endless tempo/riff changes. You're literally dizzy at the end of each song trying to follow where these guys are going. There's probably a dozen or more differently paced/distinctive riffs piled into each song so if you're looking for the standard verse/chorus approach you won't find it here. To me that's what makes this the best death metal band out there but it is tough to listen to this sucker from start to finish without feeling some sort of motion sickness. Just trying to keep up with the drummer is mind boggling in itself.
The other area they may take a knock in is the vocals. They're not quite as throat ripping as late period Chuck but they're certainly on par with the majority of the bands in this genre. So to me they're not a plus but not a negative either.
The craziest part of it all is that this band only has two guys. One guy does vocals, guitar and bass and the other plays drums. To think that they can come along and on their debut album blow away almost twenty years of prior death metal bands in one fell swoop is pretty amazing. If these guys stick around and put out a few more albums of this caliber it's virtually assured they will go down as the reigning kings of death metal.
The only thing I can see turning some people off is the endless tempo/riff changes. You're literally dizzy at the end of each song trying to follow where these guys are going. There's probably a dozen or more differently paced/distinctive riffs piled into each song so if you're looking for the standard verse/chorus approach you won't find it here. To me that's what makes this the best death metal band out there but it is tough to listen to this sucker from start to finish without feeling some sort of motion sickness. Just trying to keep up with the drummer is mind boggling in itself.
The other area they may take a knock in is the vocals. They're not quite as throat ripping as late period Chuck but they're certainly on par with the majority of the bands in this genre. So to me they're not a plus but not a negative either.
The craziest part of it all is that this band only has two guys. One guy does vocals, guitar and bass and the other plays drums. To think that they can come along and on their debut album blow away almost twenty years of prior death metal bands in one fell swoop is pretty amazing. If these guys stick around and put out a few more albums of this caliber it's virtually assured they will go down as the reigning kings of death metal.
