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The life of an Arsis fan is one that teeters between guarded satisfaction and maddening disdain. Since releasing a world-crushing debut A Celebration of Guilt and accompanying EP A Diamond For Disease, Arsis have embarked on one of the most volatile, frustrating career journeys in recent history.
Upon the release of A Celebration of Guilt back in 2004, James Malone and Michael Van Dyne were hailed as the saviors of melodic death metal. Now, this is a subgenre that seems to be constantly clamoring for salvation—whenever Insomnium or Ominum Gatherum puts out a half-decent record, hundreds of clingers climb out of the woodwork to lay stake to the “melodeath ain’t dead!” claim.
(Trouble is, melodic death metal is dead, and it has been for a while. While there may be some solid albums that pop up here and there—New World Shadows being the most recent—the subgenre’s self-imposed restraints lent it a limited shelf life. Gothenburg-style melodeath was just a decades-delayed cross-continental reaction to Bay Area thrash, and, as such, carries similar stylistic limitations.)
Arsis held more promise than any other pretender to the throne. Malone’s leads were more Schuldiner than saccharine, and the band employed a cynical fury that eluded their European counterparts. Also in the band’s favor was the undeniable fact that ACoG contained some of the decade’s greatest riffs.
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Arsis – “The Face of My Innocence”
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But it didn’t take long for things to get weird. With United In Regret, the band sophomore-slumped their way out of their Willowtip obligations; the unloving, predatory hands of Nuclear Blast were waiting to catch them. (This is the heavy metal equivalent of an NFL team backing into the playoffs, or Nick Diaz nabbing a title shot coming off a loss and a twelve-month suspension.) The over-Cesca’d, hyper-technical We Are The Nightmare found a new subsect of fans—carpal tunnel nerds—that roundly rejected Malone’s death-tinged 2010 paean to glam rock, Starve for the Devil.
Amidst this pinballing of quality and style, Arsis went through roughly 62 lineup changes. (Most notably, lead guitarists Ryan Knight and Nick Cordle were farmed out to The Black Dahlia Murder and Arch Enemy respectively, threatening to permanently relegate Arsis to Triple-A ball.) Malone—founder, lead guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter—was the only constant member. That is, until the band embarked on a 2011 tour without him.
It was enough madness to make even the most ardent loyalist doubt the band’s future. Then, a few weeks ago, Leper’s Caress happened.
This free EP from the fine folks at Scion A/V is a throwback to the style that made the band so revered in the first place. Their shred-heavy melodeath sounds as potent now as it did when it first dropped eight years ago, while Zeuss’ crystal-clear production brings the band up to the moment and renders them eminently accessible. Essentially, this is Arch Enemy for adults.
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Arsis – “Veil of Mourning Black”
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Proving that this is the true roots-rooting that fans have been clamoring for, Arsis have sneakily slid the classic demo track “Veil of Mourning Black” into this six-tracker. It fits seamlessly. Heretofore available only on the “As Regret Becomes Guilt” demo collection, this is has always held court as one of Malone’s strongest main riffs, and it’s cool to see it on a proper release. Elsewhere, the band’s propensity for killer riffage is less overt. As a rule, rippin’ guitar solos are only as good as the rhythm riffs that ride beneath, and “A Tearful Haunt, Condemned” and the raucous “Carve My Cross” (which boasts two doses of Malone’s trademark sloganeering) hammer that point home.
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Arsis – “Carve My Cross”
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Leper’s Caress is a perfect EP. Not only does it function as a more-than-serviceable stopgap between the disappointing Starve For The Devil and the long awaited Unwelcome (slated for a 2013 release), but it assures the band’s remaining fans that they’ve survived their tribulations. It’s a statement of intent and a reinforcement of faith.
Arsis is very much alive, even if melodic death metal isn’t.
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BUY LEPER’S CARESS
Scion A/V (stream or download)
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Am I the only one who enjoyed United in Regret as much as A Celebration of Guilt? “Lust Before the Maggots Conquest” boasts not only one of Malone’s best riffs, but some of his best lyrics. “Forever touched by the fire / Was it your innocence that kept be at bay? / Time was not mine, I was forever / The wolf at the door shrouded with greed”
I dig Regret too, Greg! The drumming on the title cut kills me, with that cowbell or cymbal or whatever. Wicked, man.
I kinda like Starve for the Devil, though none of the tracks are real memorable. I forgot all about We Are the Nightmare — the production on the single sounded so dry and sterile that I never bothered to pick it up
A solid review, I like this EP. Scion’s marketing scheme is almost working. When I go to buy a new car I kind of want to look for one.
Fantastic EP. I lost touch and got bored after ‘Diamond’ but this certainly gets Arsis back in the game. So good…and free.
(And where are the Scion haters? I thought this post would be ripe with them?)
“Trouble is, melodic death metal is dead, and it has been for a while.”
Nope. Like most genres declared “dead” it’s happily continuing on in various different forms/styles.
Various different forms/styles? Can you give me some examples of good bands that you consider melodeath? I’ve always written the genre off as like…the ‘worst of both worlds’, but I’d like to know more!
I’d be curious to hear about the other forms/styles in which melodeath is happily continuing. Seems to me that it’s been floundering hard for close to a decade.
Off the top of my head…
In Mourning have released three phenomenal albums so far. Darkest Hour are still selling lots of records and have a rabid fan base. Soilwork are have finally found their direction again (and having Dirk Verbeuren certainly helps matters) with The Panic Broadcast. Scar Symmetry have actually gotten better since Alvestam’s departure. Nightrage (even though I’m not a big fan of the current singer) are steadily climbing to bigger and better things. Dark Tranquillity are still going amazingly strongly. Omnium Gatherum have produced two awesome albums in the last several years (you touched on that, but only somewhat dismissively). Before The Dawn are also still up there despite the massive line-up shifts.
And that’s just bands I would consider ‘melodeath’, rather than ‘melodic death’ (which I think are worth considering as two separate things). Plus I’d say they all sound very distinct from one another, despite sharing a stylistic background.
It was actually Jordan who touched on Omnium Gatherum; I didn’t write the OP.
In any case, we’ll have to agree to disagree here. All of the bands you’ve named have been around for well over a decade, and a genre can’t get by on stalwarts alone. You need fresh blood and fresh ideas to keep things exciting. (I admittedly haven’t been interested even in most of these bands’ outputs since I was in high school, so perhaps I’m just not part of the natural audience.)
Sounds pretty good…mixed a little loud.
I met this guy a while back that was in a death metal band. All the members lived in different geographies, and each one had an understudy, so they could tour Asia or Japan or wherever w/o all members being present or part of the tour. For recording, they sent each other files.
I found the inter-changability concept fascinating: certainly it works from a business/financial standpoint and borrows a page from modern manufacturing where the practice is very popular. Perhaps it is a necessary modern trend.
One wonders, though, what is lost (if anything) when ditching traditional characteristics of a ‘band’…personality, identification, character ittself, etc. Sometimes I think that’s why very technical music is such a hard sell. Perhaps it is humanity, in all its glorious imperfection that also excites us musically, not just creativity and precision.
David
This is a cool balance between the overt technicality of we are the nightmare and the muscle of a celebration of guilt. And Diaz is the only fight that makes sense for GSP. The only person who could put up a fight at welterweight.
I love what Scion is doing with extreme music. I still have no idea what they are accomplishing giving away free EP’s (I didn’t think the fanbase of, say, Wormrot or Immolation were a target market for ANYTHING, let alone Japanese compacts) but I think it’s awesome that they are doing it.