What a stroke of luck that Willowtip hooked up with Earache to release their stuff in Europe, so they also bring Arsis' debut album to a wider audience in Europe! Arsis is a two man project with James Malone handling guitar, bass and vocals and Michael Van Dyne on drums while James Malone wrote all music and lyrics and he wrote some of the most angry stuff I've heard for a while combining thrashing sounds with head shaking deathgrind. The opener "The Face Of My Innocence" is a straight forward death grinding song but they over and over again throw in thrashy interludes featuring wonderful melodic leads and pummeling drumming. I was blown away by this opener but Arsis even top this performance with the follower "Maddening Disdain" and the recurring (kind of) chorus that contains always the same wonderful guitar riffings. "Seven Whispers Fell Silent" comes up with the same scheme which doesn't mean that the track is boring or anything, fast blasting death metal influenced grind paired with melodic guitar leads and thrash tinged drums that are also alternated by a brutal double-bass attack. This band doesn't breathe in, without a break they continue their shattering annihilation at "Return" and another highlight of this record, deathgrind drumming meets, edge-cutting riffing with amazing melodic leads and a thrash feeling! Also the first time I hear a guitar solo on the record, good stuff. I guess the next song is something special for the band because it's also the address of their website: "Worship Depraved". Unrelenting deathgrind interrupted by mid-tempo breaks and with clocking around the 3-minute mark also the second shortest track. The following songs like "Carnal Ways To Recreate The Heart", "Dust And Guilt", "Elegant And Perverse" offer the same blend of merciless death metal fueled thrashgrind. "Elegant And Perverse" is the shortest tracks and features only two short breaks beside the fast attacks. Beside the musical annihilation I recommend to read the lyrics like of the song "The Sadistic Motives Behind Bereavement Letters" which are mostly dark and personal stuff. This band heads into the same direction like Misery Index whereat Arsis have a much bigger sense for melodic guitar leads, surprise of the year!
marcel - 06/07/2005