A Celebration of Guilt

Day Seven. The term melodic death metal actual kind of displays how dumb metal heads are. A melody is really just a sequence of single notes played in succession. Even a discordant mish mash of random notes is a melody. What they mean is a sequence of single notes that actually stick to musical scales so that they can be ear-pleasing. It's hard to draw the line as what constitutes as melodic death metal, but I never quite felt that In Flames classifies as death metal. It's just melodic (in the ear pleasing sense). Enter Arsis. They actually carries the fury and brutality typically associated with death metal but they stick to ear pleasing musical scales.

Make no mistake, this is still intense. The drummer puts on a hell of a show as he blasts, thrashes, and double-bass tramples his way through each and every song. The riffs do contain melodies you can easily hum to, but they are really there just to decorate the savage, palm muted chugging and thrashing riffs. The melodies themselves carry an air of mischief and almost sinful yet playful quality to them. Super catchy riffs.

Arsis was among the first true and proper metal shows I attended. It was during the United in Regret tour. Damn, that was a long time ago. I think I was a sophomore in high school. I still have a signed copy of A Diamond for Disease. These lads blew away all the crappy metalcore bands that played that night. They also played this album in its entirety for a ten year celebration. That, too, was a killer show.

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