Arsis
We Are the Nightmare
Nuclear Blast
Someone's excited about the Carcass reunion
What made Arsis’s brand of melodic/technical death metal so enticing to many of us over the last few years was the melancholy mood that laid underneath the surface of the band’s Steer/Amott homages; whenever guitarist James Malone returned to the shredding and drummer Darren Cesca to his furious blasting, we always knew that those disarmingly devastating breaks would cycle back soon enough. It was the kind of touch that fit such titles as A Celebration of Guilt and United in Regret, and which served as a perfect backdrop to Malone’s eloquent lyrics. In a genre where the aggression/melody combination is played up constantly, Arsis classed it up, doing the description justice.
We Are the Nightmare, on the other hand, sidesteps the dark beauty of past work in favor of more blunt force. Sonically, it’s the best album they’ve ever put out, thanks to Zeuss’s crystalline production, which punches up Cesca’s prodigious beats, and consequently, Malone and Ryan Knight take advantage of the cleaner tone to explore more direct, less subtle guitar melodies. The way the record alternates between contagious riffs and technical wizardry, as on “Shattering the Spell,” is at times stunning, nimbly avoiding self-indulgence. Even more intriguing, though, are the band’s turns toward the accessible—songs like “Servants to the Night,” “Overthrown” and the title track toying with classic metal riffs while refusing to let up in visceral intensity. Cynical listeners might clamor for another “A Diamond for Disease,” but typical of Arsis, they pull off this slight musical transition with aplomb. —Adrien Begrand
