As was the case with 2010's Starve For the Devil, Arsis are continuing on with their trend of creating catchy, yet challenging melodic death metal & thrash with their latest Nuclear Blast release Unwelcome. When inspired, James Malone & crew can shred with the best of them, and there are moments here on Unwelcome that come pretty close to We Are the Nightmare territory, as the dazzling riffery & lightning solos are fully on display. However, for the most part, this is just hook laden extreme metal, complete with memorable passages and plenty of gorgeously contructed guitar harmonies to go along with the brutality.
Tracks like "Handbook for the Recently Deceased", "Carve My Cross", "Let Me Be the One", and the kick ass title song offer up no shortage of blazing riff-o-rama and Malone's ravaged death metal screams. It's a formula not far from what we expect from Arch Enemy, Carcass, and Children of Bodom, but at this point we can probably lump Arsis in this same category, as they really seem to have a handle by now on delivering technical, thrashy melodic death metal of the highest order. An interesting inclusion is the cover of Corey Hart's "Sunglasses at Night", given pretty brutal treatment and almost unrecognizable, with Malone growling up a storm amidst plenty of pummeling riffage. Elsewhere, other highlights include the precision thrash of "Scornstar" and the epic death metal sounds of "Martyred Or Mourning", each one perfect examples of just how to make technical extreme metal catchy & hook laden.
Unwelcome isn't going to go down as the album that saw Arsis break through and change the metal landscape-many will see this as more of the same, but there's no denying that what this band do they do VERY well. If you like classy melodic death metal that's plenty brutal as well as technical, this should do just fine.
Track Listing
- Unwelcome
- Carve My Cross
- Handbook For The Recently Deceased
- Choking On Sand
- Let Me Be The One
- Sunglasses At Night (COREY HART Cover)
- Martyred Or Mourning
- No One Lies To The Dead
- I Share In Shame
- Scornstar
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