Review: Arsis – We Are The Nightmare

Posted by Goshuggist on Jan 26, 2012 in CD Reviews | 1 comment

ARSIS
We Are The Nightmare (2008)

US, Nuclear Blast, Melodic Technical Death Metal

I consider myself a very open minded metalhead. I try not to be prematurely judgmental with bands I’ve never heard, bands that everyone seems to hate, bands that confuse people et. al. but there is a noteworthy percentage of metal I just don’t understand. Black Metal bands described as ‘kvlt’, the majority of Power Metal, Yngwie Malmsteen and a fairly recent strain of technical death metal known as ‘Melodic Technical Death Metal’, represented by bands like Allegaeon, Vale Of Pnath and of course, Arsis. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I stopped listening to melodic death metal almost entirely around sixteen years old. Maybe the mixture of melodic and technical death metal is just fundamentally flawed to begin with. Maybe, as many fans of Arsis will no doubt tell me after reading this, I’m just a tone deaf rube with a weedly deedly fetish. I consider the last two explanations to be the least likely, but whatever the case may be, Arsis and I have never been able to see eye to eye. Not from a lack of trying mind you. I’ve listened to a fair share of their material and the closest I’ve come to appreciating their style is on their first album ‘A Celebration Of Guilt’. It wasn’t mindblowing, but I do consider it good material. It managed to strike a nice balance between the feel of melodic death metal and the intensity of tech-death. A mere two albums later and my sense of engagement is fleeting at best. I don’t fully understand why ‘We Are The Nightmare’ is so difficult to listen to, but the bizarre mixture of boredom and restlessness this release gives me is undeniable.