Fucking FANTASTIC album art as always provided by Mark Riddick.
Alright now we're talkin'. A favorite album by one of my favorite bands is always a good way to cleanse the pallet. A Celebration of Guilt was Arsis' debut album at to this day stands head and shoulders above everything else they've released.
The opening song to end all opening songs.
A Celebration of Guilt is one of those albums that when someone puts together a Top 100 Death Metal Albums of All Time lists they are obliged to include. Top to bottom the musicianship is unmatched. Anchored by their lead guitarist, singer, and Berklee College of Music graduate James Malone A Celebration of Guilt is a lesson in how to do shred guitar properly. I'm 99% sure that there's not a arpeggio that this man didn't like, and unlike the bulk of tech death guitarists I fully support him in this endeavor.
The album rips in to a relentless pace that I want to compare to any amount of thrash albums, but doing so would cheapen how brilliantly these songs were written. The Face of My Innocence is a perfect opening shot to let you know what to expect from the rest of the album. It's 5:33 of intricate, blistering, riffs that are ultimately catchy as hell (without going in to riff salad territory). This is also easily Arsis' most well produced album. I mean, you can hear the bass guitar. Post this album they spend years ignoring that.
Arsis has gone through a few drummers since this album and while I appreciate the hell out of Mike Van Dyne's work here it has a hard time standing up to some of their later albums. He's without question on the ball enough to keep up with the pace that the music sets, but really the only time he opens up and exhibits a style of his own is when he's working his cymbal. This could be a symptom of the way the music is written. I could definitely see how it could be hard to find time to make yourself noticed as a drummer on most of these tracks but still, a solid fill now and again versus flat out speed would go a long way.
The album rips in to a relentless pace that I want to compare to any amount of thrash albums, but doing so would cheapen how brilliantly these songs were written. The Face of My Innocence is a perfect opening shot to let you know what to expect from the rest of the album. It's 5:33 of intricate, blistering, riffs that are ultimately catchy as hell (without going in to riff salad territory). This is also easily Arsis' most well produced album. I mean, you can hear the bass guitar. Post this album they spend years ignoring that.
Arsis has gone through a few drummers since this album and while I appreciate the hell out of Mike Van Dyne's work here it has a hard time standing up to some of their later albums. He's without question on the ball enough to keep up with the pace that the music sets, but really the only time he opens up and exhibits a style of his own is when he's working his cymbal. This could be a symptom of the way the music is written. I could definitely see how it could be hard to find time to make yourself noticed as a drummer on most of these tracks but still, a solid fill now and again versus flat out speed would go a long way.
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