There is no doubt in my mind that Arsis's "A Celebration of Guilt" will be the second most hyped album of 2004 (after Anata's "Under a Stone With No Inscription"), and with good cause. You'd be hard pressed to find a better use of forty five minutes on a metal album this year and the intensity this two man project musters is unmatched by just about anyone else in the scene. Sounding like...Read More

Anyone who considers themselves a fan of melodic death should immediately drop what they are doing and go out and get Arsis' debut album, A Celebration of Guilt. Now that I have your attention, I'll try to persuade you further. We all know how the "Gothenburg" scene has been copied and bands playing in this type of metal have been expanding in numbers to the point of exhaustion. Enter Arsis,...Read More

I fucking love this god damn band. A few years ago they sent me a demo that caught my attention but still didn't win me over, but having seen them live I was hooked, and at long last I have this CD in my hands to solidify the fact that indeed Arsis has become one of the finest metal bands active today. On the record they're a duo (one dude on drums, the other taking on guitar, bass, and...Read More

We all know Willowtip does death metal and grind as good as or better than any other US label, but how will they fare in the European dominated melodic/black genre? Fucking phenomenally. As with most Willowtip releases, Arsis's offering is the extremity tipped, red headed, bastard child of a parent genre. Arisis is to melodic death/black metal what Goatsblood is to doom and Watchmaker to...Read More

Over the past year or two, I've watched as the melodic death metal scene has fallen into what I thought was an irrecuperable state. Let's face it - the bands around today are spending more time trying to figure out how to make a melody that will project them into the pop realm instead of focusing on the fearsome heaviness that makes them a metal band. Enter Arsis. If there was a band who...Read More

I have a really shitty pair of headphones. They came with the MP3 CD player I received for my birthday last year, and as such they've seen quite a bit of use. Considering the relative quality of their construction, they've lasted quite a while; otherwise, there's really no basis for recommending them. The reason I mention this is that the first time I was exposed to "A Celebration Of Guilt,"...Read More

When was the last time that you went to a show, and were completely blown away by a band that you had never seen or heard of before? I experienced this very situation not even a week ago. It was a pretty shitty Monday afternoon weatherwise, and the last thing I wanted to do was go to a show after a lonnnng weekend of barbecuing and debauchery . . . it turned out to be very worth it. I bring...Read More

There was a time when I thought Melodic Death was a dead genre. There was a time when I thought At the Gates' Slaughter of the Soul was the last great Melodic Death album. There was a time when I thought that the only Melodic Death America could produce was cheap, imitation At the Gates with clean vocals thrown in (Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, and the like). That time, however, is over...Read More

I heard about Arsis through a friend back home who was ecstatic that he finally found good metal in Hampton Roads, Virginia. When he put in the brilliant five-song demo he had gotten into his car stereo, I knew it was only a matter of time before these guys got signed. Now Arsis have a record deal with one of the most exciting up and coming metal labels in Willowtip Records, and a killer...Read More

Shocking brilliance is always born from shit. When the taste of mediocrity is as blatant as your last listen to Turbo Lover and your enjoyment of music becomes a desperate search for new-born heroes... They always find you first. Arsis have managed to shame ten years of metal with but one release, for I can honestly say that A Celebration of Guilt is a testament of musical excellence,...Read More

I really don't know what to say about this CD other than HOLY CRAP THIS IS THE BEST CD EVER. And I'm not exaggerating, this is amazing. I'm not even completely sure what kind of metal I would classify this as but I don't feel the need to - it's just simply fantastic. It twists my brain into the utter limits of confusion with the tightness and twisted complexity and time signatures. Sometimes...Read More

Exactly how I like my death metal to sound. The song structures on here are even well thought out and go from part to part with ease and simplicity while maintaining its aggression almost the whole time throughout this cd. All I have to say is every melodic death metal band should just quit now that I have heard this because no one in this melodic death metal sub-genre will ever top this! I...Read More

Melodic death metal has pretty much become a fad that has come on gone, and the only reason for this is the fact that bands are simply becoming lazy. Alas! Willowtip Records has yet another answer for a dying art. Arsis is a melodic death metal band that harkens back to the aggressive sounds of Slaughter Of The Soul, while combing the blackened thrash attack of modern Immortal. Don't get...Read More

Labeling someone as being guilty of hypocrisy usually means they are a horrible person who deserves to die, but comparisons to Hypocrisy in the metal world are something worth striving for. The legendary Swedish death metal banded headed up by equally legendary producer Peter Tatgren and company pumped out a slew of classic metal tunes in the mid to late 90's, and are still going...Read More

Arsis has saved melodic death metal. I'm not going to sit here and write some lengthy expository gibberish on the history of the genre, I'm just coming out and saying it. Arsis is no joke. Forget the now very shitty In Flames, Soilwork and all of that other garbage. A Celebration of Guilt lays waste to all other melodic death metal albums released in the last few years (possible exceptions...Read More

Believe the hype. Arsis's A Celebration of Guilt is everything it's cracked up to be and probably a bit more. What makes it all the more impressive is that one man is essentially responsible for everything and that is James Malone. He does everything but play drums on this record, which are more than ably handled by Michael Van Dyne. Perhaps it is this single-mindedness that makes Mr. Malone...Read More