Music Review: Arsis – Starve for the Devil

Vitals:

Name: Arsis

Album: Starve for the Devil

Release Date:02/09/2010

Label: Nuclear Blast

Genre: Melodic Death Metal/ Technical Death Metal / Thrash

The Amalgamation

Carcass/ Arch Enemy/ Skeletonwitch / Exodus

Highlights

“Forced To Rock” One of the best opening tracks to any album I’ve ever heard. Pure energy and guitar wizardry! Awesome!

“Beyond Forlorn” Most like previous albums. Melodic and lots of interesting harmonic layers. Well done. Catchy.

“Half Past Corpse O’Clock” Stupid name, Blistering intro.

Opinion

Some bands hone particular musical nuances album to album. Those organic nuances help to develop a certain sound and maintain forward progress, never straying too far from the original path. Well, Starve for the Devil walks off the path, hacks through the jungle with a machete, parachutes off a cliff, lands in the arctic tundra, and then launches into fucking outer space. In this case, not necessarily a good thing.

Each Arsis album seems to stand on its own, not really progressing towards a particular vision or goal of a particular sound. A Celebration of Guilt had a soul and uniqueness to it, a hunger if you will. United in Regret was chock full of  groove and feel. We Are the Nightmare was the tech metal album; completely sterile in sound and feel (way too much unfocused guitar wankery).  Starve for the Devil has a classic metal/thrash sound like it’s from 20 years ago, but with a melodic twist.

All doubts aside, Arsis has a good solid album on their hands.  Though the lyrics are rather lame in multiple songs, the guitarists have dialed back the experimental tech circus, focusing more on classic songwriting and solid soloing. Plenty of fist pumping energy to be had. Unfortunately, as part of the band’s complete discography, Starve for the Devil is just another puzzle piece that begs the question: Who are you, Arsis?   - \m/

Rating

(3/5)

Replay Value: Moderate

Recommend? Yes