Psycroptic may be one of the best known technical death metal bands out there today. Their high profile is largely the result of the fact that they make a type of technical death metal that moves about a mile a second, but while managing to not be too abstract. The band has historically had catchy hooks and great melodic parts, while never backing down on the guitar gymnastics and with vocals that have been just as diverse and unique as the music behind it. Psycroptic is the real deal, so there was never any hesitation on my part when I got a hold of the Tazmanian band’s 5th full-length The Inherited Repression.

Oh, and I knew what I was going to get out the gate. Even with the logo gone, The Inherited Repression screams “something grim comes this way,” and when the characteristic Psycroptic legato technical riff burst out the gate at about 57 seconds into “Carriers of the Plague” I was pretty much in. The whole album is a tour de force of Psycroptic‘s unique sound. There’s the groove parts (like the opening riff of the album, the amazing stuff in the middle of “From Scribe to Ashes”), the slower “breakdowny” and acoustic parts (but, this isn’t core and they’re few and far between) and the hyper fast and techy style riffs that have been with us since the beginning (some of my favorite riffs show up in final track “The Sleeper Has Awoken” but the whole album is littered with amazing riff after amazing riff). This is the stuff that keeps me excited for every time these guys put out a record.

Another major thing about this record that blows the previous albums out of the water is the production. While 2008′s (Ob)Servant was released on Nuclear Blast, the production on it wasn’t the best. Specifically the drums were heinously replaced and the sound was immensely annoying. The Inherited Repression inherited none of these production problems and it is easily the band’s most balanced album to date. The vocals are pretty far back in the mix and it helps to focus on the whirling guitars, bass and drums which are properly mixed this time around.

But I have a big complaint and, frankly, I’m a little confused as to what’s up. Jason Peppiat replaced Chalky three records ago, and since then the vocals, while not having been as extreme, were actually a little reminiscent of Trevor Strnad’s tendency to switch it up and be really dynamic. One of the things that made Psycroptic interesting to me was the way that the vocals really matched each riff and just as dynamic as the music. Unfortunately on The Inherited Repression vocalist Peppiat has pretty much stopped doing anything that isn’t in the mid-ranged scream area. While he does have two or three different tones that he uses, the death metal growl is completely gone, as well as the more At The Gates scream that he used to do—and that I really, really liked. This shouldn’t be that big a deal, right? It’s just death metal vocals. But unless the music has also lost a step (which, given that the songs are on average about 1:30 shorter than on their last record, is possible), I think that the vocals being so monotonous really has a detrimental effect on the music. While the riffs are solid, I have found that this record sags a bit in the middle, which none of the band’s previous material ever has. The only thing I can come up with is that the vocals were a lot more important than we ever gave them credit for.

I don’t want that to take away from the fact that Psycroptic is a great band and that the music on this record is pretty fucking solid. But I do feel like The Inherited Repression is a bit of a step backwards for a band that is as talented and dynamic as they come. Fans of the band will obviously still enjoy this record, but I’m not sure that it’s going to be met with as unanimous cheers and glee that the band’s previous work has.

Related posts:

1. Abysmal Dawn – Leveling the Plane of Existence Review
2. Dim Mak – The Emergence of Reptilian Altars Review
3. Suicide Silence – No Time to Bleed Review

And man, when I got this record I was fucking giddy. From the beginning it’s pretty much a non-stop, smash you in the face example of what makes tech death some of my favorite music in the world when done right. Subtly melodic, tracks like “Coexistence” hook you with guitar (and bass) carried melodies and virtuoso performances, while at the same time bringing around heaviness and brutality when needed. In that sense, it’s more comparable to Obscura‘s breakthrough record Cosmogenesis than most of the other tech death kin. There’s a melodic sense that often gets lost in Necrophagist or Spawn of Possession kind of work.

While the whole band is obviously very talented, you should know that the thing to watch for here is Beyond Creation‘s bassist Dominic Lapointe. This guy is a rare talent on the fretless bass and the way that bass is used here is even more in your face than on Cynic or Obscura‘s work. But while this rubs some people the wrong way, it definitely hits me right in the “OH FUCK YEAH” section of the brain. Watch out especially for the way it’s used in clean breakdowns like in “Coexistence,” or as a countermelody at the halfway point of huge epic “The Departed.” This is a sound I can’t get enough of.

I strongly recommend you head over to the band’s merch page and buy this thing directly. It’s ridiculously awesome.

Related posts:

1. Things You Might Have Missed 2011: Nami – Fragile Alignments
2. Things You Might Have Missed 2011: Graveworm – Fragments of Death
3. Things You Might Have Missed 2011: Nader Sadek – In the Flesh

Dim Mak arose from cult heroes Ripping Corpse in 1996 (after Erik Rutan ran off to join Morbid Angel) and they decided to do something entirely different. And yes, I believe that Dim Mak definitely qualifies as that. A thrashy, techy death metal band with martial arts themes almost exclusively (yes, their first record was called Enter the Fist), The Emergence of Reptilian Altars is the band’s fourth full length and first since 2006. Five years (well, six if you’re looking at the Euro release date) is a long time to wait between albums, so you’d like to think that they were preparing something super special (like the Touch of Death!) for their return. But during that five years down, original vocalist (and Ripping Corpse member) Scott Ruth left the band and was replaced by newcomer Joe Capizzi, whose style is markedly different than his predecessor.

And The Emergence of Reptilian Altars is a record arguably quite different than its forerunners. While the band operates breakneck speed for a good portion of the time, pumping out amelodic riffs galore and pummeling the listener’s brain with ridiculous, tight and fascinating drumming from Origin and Gorguts drummer John Longstreth, there is not the same blitzkrieg kind of blasthappy speed approach. This makes for some pretty awesome material at times. “The Secret Tides of Blood” lilts back and forth between blasty chorus parts and groove laden, almost jazzy, interludes and verse parts that can switch up almost unpredictably. On top of this kind of material, vocalist Joe Capizzi apparently approaches tracks in a much different way than most vocalists. Where others seem to harbor a desire make their vocals work rhythmically, he seems more accustom to spitting his vocals out in bunches, in places that seem vaguely inappropriate and unsettling at times like some sort of crazed, death metal beat poet! This can be really distracting and actually discourages getting into the groove of tracks.

So I was admittedly really pretty cool on this album until the introduction of the track “Between Immensity and Eternity” kicked in and that’s when The Emergence of Reptilian Altars really turned around for me. That track, while still containing riffs that might as well be finger exercises, also contains some outstandingly groovy and crushing riffs that kept me coming back again and again. And this was not just a fluke, the follow up, the vocalless “Through the Rivers of Pestilence,” also contains some riffs worthy of Death or Covenant-era Morbid Angel. In fact, I’d say the entire final two thirds of the disc should probably just have been an EP, because those 6 tracks really fucking rip. And with lyrics like these form the track “Fully Disassembled” it’s not too difficult to feel pretty stoked about this album: “‎In this landscape forged from dismemberment! I administer the sacrement of pain!” Yes sir, you most certainly do.

So while I’m not totally sold on the first three tracks, because there are basically no riffs or moments that bring me back around, The Emergence of Reptilian Altars wins pretty hard on the back end. The musicianship is awesome (though the bass is *way* too low in the mix), with the riffing actually wandering into the nearly unmatched and highly addictive area of Anata at times, and the drums alone are worth listening to. Still, while this record does salvage itself on the back end (and “Between Immensity and Eternity” is definitely one of the best songs I’ve heard in this young 2012), enter at your own risk. Dim Mak is not for everyone.

Related posts:

1. Horrendous – The Chills Review
2. Swashbuckle – Back to the Noose Review
3. Aeon – Path of Fire Review

In 2009 a record came sort of out of nowhere that really took me by surprise, and frankly, kicked my ass something fierce. It was from Italian technical death metallers Fleshgod Apocalypse and the record was called Oracles. What I loved about the album, and the thing that made it so addicting, was that it was beautifully melodic and unabashedly technical at the same time. It blended these two things into what was easily the most unique technical death metal or melodic death metal record that had been released in a very, very long time. I was blown away (and still am). I didn’t review it at the time, but it made the #3 spot on my Top 10(ish) of 2009 and I have been waiting for the follow up ever since. Agony, the band’s first record on Nuclear Blast records, is that follow up and it’s a great album that bugs me. 

Agony is functionally not the same band as the one that performed on Oracles. Well, the core is the same, but the band has added keyboards and orchestrations after the Mafia EP [Also, why change the logo? Christophe's logo was fantastic! - AMG]. Adding the pianos and orchestrations gives the band a feel much more similar to Dimmu Borgir, Septicflesh or Behemoth and adds them to the lump of the pile that is orchestrated death metal. The keys and orchestrations add a pompous, bombastic character to the music that works pretty well for what they’re doing—it certainly is fun to listen to at times and adds a dynamic to technical death metal that makes it easier to stomach and adds more ups and downs. It also creates a bed, of sorts, on which the music lays. There are 8 tracks on this album, plus an orchestral intro and an piano outro that are truly beautiful. It’s worth noting, as well, that the orchestrations aren’t cheesy or poorly done—they’re similar to Mustis’s work in Dimmu Borgir in sound quality and composition. They’re quite good.

But adding orchestrations to Fleshgod Apocalypse took away the thing that made them the most interesting, in my opinion. In my discussions with other metal heads I’ve noticed that I’m one of the few people who has noticed this, but Oracles is such a beautifully melodic record and all the neo-baroque and neoclassical goodness was being carried on the guitars. This created a face raping heaviness to the world’s most melodically pleasing music. Agony hits you in the face with it (as do the faux tuxedos that they’re wearing in the promo pictures now). It’s like the musical equivalent of the “rebirth” scene in V for Vendetta—you know, where Natalie Portman’s character comes out with her arms stretched into the rain. Her character remade, like V’s had been of fire. But the directors don’t trust you to be smart enough to figure that shit out on your own, so instead they splice the two together just in case you’re too fucking stupid to notice that it’s happening.

So while everyone is going on about how this record is “technical perfection,” I ask: where? Yeah, it’s heavy. But the technicality on the guitars has taken a step back because everything interesting that was happening on the guitars has been moved to the keyboards. Is there a melody? Well hell yes there is: you’re being smashed in the face with it over and over and over and over. “HEY LOOK! WE’RE ITALIANS REFERENCING OUR CULTURAL HERITAGE!!” And that’s fine, I guess. But it leaves something to be desired by lumping the band into a growing trend (orchestral death metal), while taking away what the band was initially so damned good at.

Of course, now that I’ve got that off my chest, it should be stated that this record is cool. This is better than the new Septicflesh and anything Behemoth has done since Demigod. The clean vocals that they’ve added worked well on ”Thru Our Scars” and they work well here on “The Hypocrisy” but it becomes quickly obvious that this guy is a one trick pony who is singing outside of his comfort zone. But the record flows fantastically, using the orchestral bed to segue between tracks in a way that holds the album together. This is probably Agony‘s strength compared with the previous material: it is a very cohesive and excellently written record that seems to be thematically linked. Every track is well-composed and the orchestrations and vocal variations work to separate the band from its Hour of Penance past.

I suggest that fans of the band check out this record. They’ll find some improvements (certainly the drums are less bad than they were previously) and some great song-writing that is similar to Oracles even if its substantively different. New fans interested in checking out an orchestral band in the vein of a tech death Dimmu or Septicflesh should not hesitate to check this record out. But given my expectations this album is still a bit disappointing for me. I think it’s going to take some time to get used to. And who knows, then maybe I’ll join in the ass kissing festivities. But until then: this is a great record, but it could’ve been better.

Related posts:

1. Fleshgod Apocalypse to Release EP Entitled Mafia
2. Updating Twitter and Listening to Fleshgod Apocalypse
3. Draconian – A Rose for the Apocalypse Review

March has really been one hell of a month, hasn’t it? To think after Amon Amarth and Vintersorg we get to follow it all up with Obscura‘s Omnivium. If any record counts as the most-anticipated of the year, Obscura is probably getting pretty close to that level. Having released in 2009, what was really a hell of a surprise for most listeners (including people who’d purchased their previous record) in Cosmogenesis, these technical death metallers built on their Necrophagist cred (and sound) and on the legacy of the mighty Death with their technical, progressive death metal—complete with awesome fretless bass attack. So, while this isn’t really a record that can fall victim of the sophomore slump (being the band’s third record), it certainly is an album that could fall victim to overly heightened expectations. And, I must admit, this Angry Metal Guy certainly had heightened expectations.

Omnivium is actually not what I was expecting, however. In some ways this was a little disappointing, and in some ways this was very invigorating. Let me try to explain. Cosmogenesis was a front-loaded record, in my opinion, and it was excellent when it was riffy, fast and techy. But the record almost underplayed the technical aspects of the band because, realistically, compared to their genre-mates I think that Obscura is quite easily accessible. It’s like taking something that should take some effort to get into (see Ulcerate or Defiled) and turning it into something that could make Gibson’s shittiest list ever made. And reality has it that Obscura is about the hookiest tech death band out there. But Omnivium? Omnivium is different.

While there is definitely still that “The Anti-Cosmic Overload” style of attack, the band starts out showing that this record will be different from the acoustic strains of “Septuagint,” which while it does get heavy, is never quite so hooky. And Omnivium feels like a band that’s still sort of experimenting to some extent, drawing from the legacy of Death to even landing in Morbid Angel territory on “Ocean Gateways” and stealing the vocoder straight out of Cynic‘s playbook on “Prismal Dawn” and “Celestial Spheres.” Omnivium even ends up in Ulcerate or Necrophagist territory on the track “Velocity,” which is probably the most difficult to digest track on the record—and certainly different from anything on Cosmogenesis. This is not to say that the hookiness that existed on Cosmogenesis doesn’t exist here, it’s just more buried in technicality than before.

All of this is done with the technical expertise that few other bands have, even among technical death metal bands. Guitarist Christian Muenzner is a total beast, ripping out some solos on this thing that should make his fingers melt and that will make your brain boil, and if this guy is anything as consistent live as he is on tape he should be hailed as one of the best in the business—and, while I don’t have a list of who’s playing what, Steffen Kummerer isn’t a slouch either from the sounds of it. The other stand out musical element of this record is the bass of Jeroen Thesseling, which laces every track with impressive licks and a sound that I just can’t get over. I think the sound and approach of the fretless attack is one of the things that keeps drawing me back to Obscura. Check out the bass solo in “Celestial Spheres,” it’s fucking sublime. Hell, even the extreme vocals here have even improved in a lot of ways, though there is the use of vocoders and filters feels a tad silly at times, and there’s a of a lot more clean vocals than I was expecting. I enjoy that, but this might piss off a purist or two.

This is a dense record full of stuff that fans of technical death metal will love if they haven’t already decided that Obscura is too trendy (or derivative) to dig. I think the songwriting feels a little directionless at times (see the second half of “Velocity” and “A Transcendental Serenade,” for example), so it’s not perfect but this is a technically amazing record from one of death metal’s premier bands. I certainly look forward to hearing more from this band, and I certainly look forward to seeing where this record ranks on my end-of-the-year list, because it’s hard to imagine that something this epic and technically impressive wouldn’t end up there. Then again, predictions have a way of going awry. And 2011 certainly does seem to be turning into a banner year for metal, doesn’t it?

Related posts:

1. Pestilence – Doctrine Review
2. Abysmal Dawn – Leveling the Plane of Existence Review
3. Defiled – In Crisis Review

I’ve been waiting for a long time to get to Abysmal Dawn‘s new disc Leveling the Plane of Existence. Having had a 2010 that was sadly devoid of mind-blowing technical death metal (excepting Hour of Penance‘s Paradogma), I was really looking forward to a slab of technical death metal mastery that is being sold by Relapse as the savior of American death metal. While I wouldn’t go that far, Abysmal Dawn does offer up some solid technical death metal that is well-played, well-written and full of enough novel ideas and good riffs to make the record enjoyable. And the band has a unique, melodic voice that separates it from the pack.

Abysmal Dawn is a solid technical death metal band in the vein of Psycroptic, Decrepit Birth, Anata and others. However, whether or not they’re up to that same level is up in the air. Leveling the Plane of Existence has some excellent tracks on it, to be sure. The short and sweet “Manufactured Humanity” stood out for me the first time through, because the main riff while simple, was definitely infectious. “In Service of Time,” the third track on the record, has a great groove at the beginning and is generally mid-paced throughout, but it’s loaded with great harmonies and smart writing—not to mention great solos and superb guitar tone. Abysmal Dawn even wanders into doomy-esque Nile territory with the slow riff at the beginning of “Perpetual Dormancy” only to land in At The Gates territory with the harmonies that follow it up in some of the most well-constructed song writing on the record, flowing seamlessly from one idea to the next without interruption and without seeming remotely forced.

And while thinking about the construction and sound of the record, the production on this CD should not be overlooked. While certainly we don’t spend a lot of time talking about production these days because any band signed to any label worth its salt can afford state-of-the-art production these days, but the mix on Leveling the Plane of Existence is superb, and unlike Psycrotpic, Hour of Penance and Fleshgod Apocalypse the drums on here sound more natural (though I’m sure they’re replaced). This makes everything that happens on here sit perfectly, which is good because few things are more annoying when listening to death metal than a snare drum that blocks out the riffing.

All of that said, though Leveling the Plane of Existence is not a scene defining record. It’s pretty much what one expects of technical death metal. While there are excellent tracks as mentioned earlier, there are also some tracks that might even go down in the “filler” category, like “My Own Savior” and the sleeper of a final, and frankly cheesy, track “The Sleeper Has Awakened.” These songs have some good parts, but I doubt they’re band’s strongest material, and they certainly don’t live up to a lot of the other material on the disc.

Still, the final product of Abysmal Dawn‘s third album is definitely on the good side of the spectrum. The record is good and the band is definitely talented as hell and has developed a unique voice. The technical skill, and especially the guitar solos, stand out as some of the best I’ve heard on a death metal record in a long time. These guys aren’t spending time imitating Kerry King or Trey Azagthoth but instead have developed a much more melodic approach to the guitar solos that definitely plays well with this style—something that sets them apart from other more technical bands that are putting out records right now. So while Leveling the Plane of Existence might not be scene-defining, it is definitely worthy of a listen for fans. And it might even prove a gateway to the scene for non-fans.

Related posts:

1. Fleshgod Apocalypse – Agony Review
2. Arsis – Starve for the Devil Review
3. Obscura – Omnivium Review

I’ll admit it, I’m a biased motherfucker. When I think of Japan, I think of anime and J Pop and bands like over-the-top shit like X Japan and the crazy clown lookin’ girls, not brutal death metal bands like Defiled. I guess I should have learned this lesson already from bands like Gore Beyond Necropsy and Sigh and others who break against this stereotype in their own way, but no, my bias remains. Though I guess you can really say that Defiled is over-the-top—as they are an excellent, but also very brutal and pretty technical death metal band that is releasing their fourth full length. However, I can say that I was right surprised to get this record since I had no idea it was coming out and it has been 8 years since their Season of Mist debut Divination. But whether or not I had warning, Defiled has put out another ball breaking slab of death metal crushingness.

Of all genres, I’d say that technical/brutal death metal is the genre that has taken me the longest to get into. I never found bands like Cryptopsy or Gorguts to be particularly fulfilling when it came to getting out aggression. In fact, I’d say that a lot of this kind of music is supremely cerebral—to the point of frustration sometimes. Defiled is definitely on that cerebral side of the spectrum—In Crisis maybe even more so than 2003′s Divination. One major thing that will stand out to fans of the band right away is that all the songs on this record are about twice as long as the band’s previous discs. And this definitely shows up in the writing. The tracks are not as direct, they’re more complex and highly compressed.

This complexity and compression leads to an album that takes your active participation and attention to really get into. So this really depends on what kind of fan you are. Do you want a record that hits you with its hooks and takes you on an immediate ride? Or do you want a record that is going to pummel you with its crazy riffs, time changes and brutality and that takes 7 listens before you really appreciate it? If you’re willing to wait around In Crisis is definitely a record worth checking out.

For me, I was struck by one change from their earlier material that I’d heard, and that with the rise in complexity the memorability of the riffs seems to have gone down a bit. Divination is chalk full of riffs that stick to you. They’re not necessarily melodic, but they’re outstanding. They stick to your brain like creepy little mutant worms and they dig into your gray matter, willing you to listen to them over and over and over. In Crisis, while outstanding in its complexity and brutality, hasn’t really done that for me. This is partially because the writing style being different (though, really, it’s Defiled and you will recognize it), but I have another theory.

It’s been 8 years since Defiled put out a record and production has changed in 8 years. Records released in 2003, particularly on smaller labels, didn’t have the kind of access to high-tech, state-of-the-art production technologies. In Crisis is too damn compressed—and by this I mean in a production sense. The bass doesn’t stand out like it did on earlier releases, and despite being very good I had to put it into my earphone monitors to really be able to appropriately get a feel for it. While the drums sound better (not unbalanced), the level of compression here makes the whole mix so dense that those bits and pieces that caught listeners on previous releases and stuck get hidden underneath the wall of compressed sound. And so the record loses something for it. In essence, it makes a composition style that is already a hard nut to crack for some, more difficult to get into.

All-in-all, though, if you’re a fan of technical, brutal death metal then you should definitely check out this record. It will reward your patience and you will enjoy it.  The riffs are razor sharp, the rhythm section is pummeling and aggressive and the vocals are exactly what you expect them to be—no more, no less. However, if this is your first experience with Defiled I strongly encourage you to go back and check out their earlier material, as well. While this record is great, it might take some of their earlier stuff to convince you to give it a deeper listen.

Related posts:

1. Obscura – Omnivium Review
2. Septic Flesh – The Great Mass Review
3. Ghost Brigade – Until Fear No Longer Defines Us

Swedish death metal, I mean real Swedish death metal with the legacy of brutality that everyone can identify in the form of (insert your favorite Swedish death metal bands here) lives on in Aeon, a band that hails from Östersund a city in Jämtland (which is basically in the mountains and towards the Norwegian border). Östersund, while not known for its thriving metal scene, has indeed birthed one of Sweden’s current and most brutal death metal bands who were signed to Metal Blade and released an album a couple of years ago entitled Rise to Dominate which really excited fans of the tech and (more-or-less) brutal styles of death metal. I believe when I was introduced to them the words “fucking ridiculous” were definitely involved somewhere in that conversation.

Now the gritty details: Aeon, if you haven’t heard them before, is not a ground breaking band. Following well in the footsteps of other Swedish bands and, of course, American death metal bands such as Morbid Angel, Malevolent Creation and so forth, these guys produce a full frontal aural assault—but they’re not doing anything that is going to win them any trophies in the Angry Metal Guy History of Metal Awards Show. That said, there is much to be said for bands who are producing straight up solid, brutal and interesting material like Path of Fire which bursts out the gate with the line “On your knees you plead / forgiveness DENIED!”

Length-wise, this is a perfect LP record that clocks in at about 41 minutes in length. The tracks are solid, fast and heavy. The downtuned chug often offset by superb soloing and pretty smart songwriting. There is a lot more groove based death metal riffing on this album that I would have expected—and there’s even a couple of Nile-esque filler tracks which add to the very Mesopotamian atmosphere of *cough* EEEVIL! Think: the beginning of The Exorcist what with the demon against the hot sunlight.

That said, there are two major criticisms that I have of this album. Firstly, this album suffers from Drum Replacement Syndrome™ (lest mine ears deceive me), which often times takes away from the simple brutality of what death metal is supposed to be. Now granted, these aren’t exactly Fleshgod Apocalypse drums or anything, they sound more realistic than some of the triggered crap that I’ve heard in my day, but there’s definitely some drum tone on here that just is too fucking much for me. Secondly, unless I’m mistaken, Östersund is not overrun by religious nuts who are demanding that the guys from Aeon bow down and worship Jesus. There is a sense, that all this EEEEEvil going on here is kind of just a thematic act that feels a bit stretched thin. Sure, you guys are evil, but Jesus means nothing to the great majority of the Swedish populace, dudes. What the fuck are you rebelling against?

All-in-all though, if you’re a fan of the band or the style you’ll be pleased with this record. The record is chalk full of solid fucking songs that rip your spine out with thick riffs and great brutal vocals. The production, while probably a tad clean, is still thick and the band sounds great. Oh, and the “fucking ridiculous” guitar work is still there with some great solos here, particularly on what I see as the absolute pinnacle of the record “Liar in the Name of God” (which even if you don’t check out the whole album, do yourself and listen to this song because it’s excellent). While Path of Fire might not live up to the sheer excellence of Rise to Dominate, it is definitely a record for these Swedes to be proud of.

Related posts:

1. Trident – World Destruction Review
2. Demonical – Death Infernal Review
3. Unleashed – As Yggdrasil Trembles Review

In the new wave of technical, fast, melodic death metal bands that have been coming out in the last few years Arsis has stood alone with its professional blending of melodic death, technical death and thrash. Basically an instant success story from their first CD A Celebration of Guilt, the band has gone through a lot of line-up changes and has been out there pretty much consistently since their break in 2004. Starve for the Devil follows on the heals of 2008′s We Are the Nightmare and there are a lot of expectations to be met and surpassed with this new album.

Blowing out the door with “Forced to Rock”, for good or for ill, Starve for the Devil is in the books now and it’s pretty good. The Arsis you know and love is definitely here within these tracks. The record is filled with fast, technical riffs, amazing leads and some great hooks. But Starve for the Devil differentiates itself from previous releases by being far more traditionally structured rock tracks which combine the technicality of their riffing. This change is probably welcome from some, but I suspect that fans of technical death metal will be a lot more disappointed with this stuff.

Starve for the Devil is also superior to its predecessor in that the band has moved back towards more natural drums with the return of drummer Mike Van Dyne. This makes the production on this record so much easier to listen to. Instead of having the very false sounding drums that permeated every crevice in the listeners brains,  and overpowered even the guitars in some places, now the production is far more balanced. This fact, combined with the poppy song structures, makes this album fun to listen to for sure. Tracks like “From Soulless to Shattered”, “Escape Artist” and “The Ten of Swords” stand out not for the technical prowess, but because of their hooks and guitar harmonies. At first this is a welcome change, because this record is easy to get hooked on. But there does feel like there’s something missing here for me, personally. Even after deep listening to this album, I began to feel like the band could have worked a little harder at writing more technical pieces. Don’t get me wrong, of course. The band is not simplifying so much that the record doesn’t contain any of the technical aspects that fans are coming to expect. The musicianship on here is stellar. The drums, as mentioned, are fantastic. The bass performance is awesome (not something I even normally mention) and of course the guitar-work is stellar as always. The issue is more stylistic than anything else.

In sum, Starve for the Devil is a pretty good record for fans of bands like The Black Dahlia Murder, At The Gates and other more aggressive melodic death bands. The band has definitely improved in some ways, certainly their writing feels more focused and linear, and that can really go either way depending on who is listening to the record. This record could be a grower, but review deadlines don’t let that kind of thing happen. We’ll see where I stand on it this at the end of the year.

Related posts:

1. Abysmal Dawn – Leveling the Plane of Existence Review
2. Immolation – Majesty and Decay Review
3. Scar Symmetry – The Unseen Empire Review