### 4Arm: The empires of death

#### 12/10/10 || revenant

So 4Arm have been living under my nose for the last few years without my noticing. Not literally, of course, my nose just isn’t that big. No, what I mean is that these fuckers have been living and gigging in the same city as me for 5 years and I had never heard of them until recently, when I was ambushed by the drummer handing me a flyer as I was leaving a gig. In my alcohol induced dyslexic state, I thought I read Alarum and got very excited (those guys rule), only to become somewhat disappointed when corrected. Nonetheless, I went to their MySpace to check them out and see if they were worth paying attention too. A week later I purchased this disc.

Now if I may be 4thright, 4go the nonsense and be 4ward with my opinion, I h8 the name. That does not make it a 4gone conclusion that I will h8 the band, but it’s a shame they could not have been more cr8ive, w8ed a bit longer (maybe a 4tnight) be4 deciding to stick with the name. Let’s face it, 1ce you start with a name, it’s there 4 as long as you are 2gether. You don’t want to have something you will regret l8er, especially when some smart arse reviewer comes along and says “4est Gump could have come up with a better name”. Which he could have.

But enough of that nonsense, it’s the music that matters here, not the name. 4Arm play groove metal, much along the lines of the groove metal that was big in the 90s. In their music I can hear Pantera, Machine Head and Purged influences coming to the fore, and fans of those bands will certainly enjoy this. You want big, crunching guitars laying down some grooves, shouted vocals (sitting somewhere between Hetfield and Araya), catchy choruses and pounding drums? This be the shit for you right here, because all of them come in abundance. And it’s pretty damn good too.

As it turns out, the three tracks 4Arm have uploaded from the album onto their myspace are the best three on the album (“Carnal”, “Lead the Way” and “Peace in Hate”). “Peace in Hate” is definitely my favourite of the album, a real catchy, aggressive and pumping tune that has a real killer chorus. Another highlight of the album is “An Old Man Dies”, with it’s varied vocal working surprisingly well and showing these guys have more up their sleeves than big crunching riffs.

While we’re on the subject, 4Arm pack some ace riffs into this record. The only problem I have is that some of them are played a little too fast. Take, for instance, the opening track “Carnal”. Don’t get me wrong, I love this track, but I just feel the pace was a little rushed. Sometimes it doesn’t hurt to ease off a little. I remember hearing an interview with Rob Flynn once talking about “Death Church”, and how initially they had played it with a much faster tempo. Then, after receiving some helpful advice, slowed it down and, in doing so, made it a much better track. There are a couple of tracks on “The Empires of Death” where this advice might have helped 4Arm too.

I note on the sleeve notes that 4Arm mixed and produced this album themselves. While this may be true, I do have to ask: were all of the members invited? Even Andy, the bass player (or was it his turn to hand out flyers that day)? If he was, what was he actually doing when you guys turned down his base so low? Yes, everything else sounds ace, particularly the guitars, but bass… shit, I can barely hear the bass.

Regardless of my minor quibbles, I do have to take my hat off to this mob. Metal doesn’t get much support from labels in Australia, and this self funded, self produced and self released effort is certainly a worthwhile purchase. With a bit of guidance and label backing, this could have been a pretty hot release in 2010. As it is, they are still doing a pretty good job of it on their own.

- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: Self-released
- Website: 4Arm MySpace
- Band
- Danny Tomb: vocals, guitars
- Johnny Glovasa: guitars
- Andy Hinterreiter: bass
- Michael Vafiotis: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Carnal
- 02. Lead the Way
- 03. An Old Man Dies
- 04. Unchanged
- 05. Bring Me Back
- 06. Peace in Hate
- 07. Little Doll
- 08. 1260 Days
- 09. Burn It All
- 10. Spent and Bled
- 11. The Empires of Death
- 12. The Cage