### Arsis: United in regret

#### 18/09/07 || The Duff

The first time I took notice of Arsis was with the GD review written by Josh Thorne of “A Celebration of Guilt”, soon after that, the bandmembers of Arsis were being heralded as the best thing to happen to the metal scene in a long, long time. Unfortunately, one thing stuck out like a sore thumb in that review – Arsis are an American band that plays Swedish melodic death metal, a genre for which I had absolutely no time.

So I let my interest in the band slide, and even refused to pay them any heed once their having released the follow-up EP, “A Diamond for Disease”, fuck knows why I’m listening to them now, but this review isn’t going to terminate professing a revelatory moment I had where I discovered Arsis to be the sexiest thing since the thought of my cock slipping into Jessica Alba’s arsis (I seriously apologize for this shit…).

The truth of the matter is, Arsis are a great band, filled with talented musicians who know great metal, but then I could say the same thing about eight hundred other bands. If you’re new to the sub-genre, then Arsis could well become your next favourite band (the musicianship is without a doubt of an outstanding level of excellence). However, if you’ve spent the past ten years listening to nothing but metal, then I guarantee you have heard most of the riffs here.

I seem to remember similar positive things said about Shadows Fall when they first started out, and I can see the same ‘‘gradual fade-out’‘ future in tow for these chaps – nothing they do is novel enough to give their music any real lasting value; they have bucketloads of talent, but make their influences far too apparent, and aren’t choosing to branch out from a sound which by now has been repeated to (melodic) death (metal), hoho.

It’s a shame, but such is the way of things; I shall give this album the score it deserves, but the classic stuff shall always reign over the recycled, and therefore should take precedence for your hard earned cash.

8 “oh fuck, are we really going through this again?” out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2006
- Label: Willowtip
- Website: Arsis MySpace
- Band
- James Malone: guitars/vocals
- Ryan Knight: guitars
- Michael Park: vocals
- Noah Martin: bass
- Darren Cesca: drums/vocals

- Tracklist
- 01. Oh, The Humanity
- 02. ... And The Blind One Came
- 03. United In Regret
- 04. I Speak Through Shadows
- 05. Lust Before The Maggots Conquest
- 06. The Marriage Bed
- 07. The Cold Resistance
- 08. The Things You Said
- 09. Hopeless Truth