A Celebration of Guilt

Band's List Technical Death Arsis A Celebration of Guilt
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17/20
Band Name Arsis
Album Name A Celebration of Guilt
Type Album
Released date 30 March 2004
Music StyleTechnical Death
Members owning this album117

Tracklist

Bonustracks
1.
 The Face of My Innocence
 05:32
2.
 Maddening Disdain
 03:29
3.
 Seven Whispers Fell Silent
 03:46
4.
 Return
 04:42
5.
 Worship Depraved
 03:01
6.
 Carnal Ways to Recreate the Heart
 04:52
7.
 Dust and Guilt
 04:24
8.
 Elegant and Perverse
 02:22
9.
 The Sadistic Motives Behind Bereavement Letters
 04:24
10.
 Looking to Nothing
 03:21
11.
 Wholly Night
 04:21

Bonus
12.
 Painted eyes
 03:47
13.
 Veil of Mourning Black
 02:56

Total playing time: 50:57

Buy this album

 $6.70  2,66 €  6,94 €  £10.10  $19.26  17,40 €  21,10 €
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Arsis


Review @ stayheavy

16 October 2005
Arsis, a band hailing from USA, with their latest effort called „A Celebration of Guilt” made a lot of mess in a metal world. Formed by two gents, James Malone on guitars and Michael Van Dyne responsible for the drums, Arsis is a technical death metal in the vein of At The Gates and late Death ( Sound of Perseverance era).To tell you the truth, I spent a lot of time listening to that album before I decided to review it here. When I first heard it, I thought that whatever they play, I heard it before. In fact, I did, but still the cd tastes fucking good! It`s full of complex structures which are melodic and easily stay in your head. It`s worth adding here that this ‘melodic thing’ differs much from what we got used to with a little help from swidish scene. This is ‘straight in your face’ death metal which is really beatiful at the same time. Sounds strange, but it`s true! Each song on the album has something good to offer. There are awsome guitars with overlapping patterns and good solos, there are interesting breakdowns and they have a really good drummer who won`t make you feel bored with his playing. The guy is a machine, but an intelligent one, believe me. The main difference between Aris and other bands playing technical death is the fact that the songs on “A Celebration of Guilt” are really well constructed. They are complex, but not chaotic by any means. It sounds like each note on the album has it`s strictly defined place and guys thought it over hard before entering the studio. The production is excelent! You can clearly hear each instrument, which is very important in this kind of metal I guess. Even the vocals are recorder in this way that you can understand what is sung, which is a rarity. I would recomend listening to this album to everyone who likes technical death metal, you won`t be dissapointed! If you think that no band can get close to the great Death, check this out, it`s worth every money! On the band`s website, there are two songs you can download, so don`t waste time and give it a try!

Highlights: whole album, but The Face of My Innocence, Maddening Disdain, Seven Whispers Fell Silent and Worship Depraved especially.

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Review @ Crinn

01 January 2012

A monumental classic

It feels like I’ve been listening to Arsis for ages, but it’s actually only been about two years. I was a high school freshman and my friend and I noticed that on the website of one of our favorite concert venues that Arch Enemy was coming. I had become pretty familiar with Arch Enemy by that time but decided that since I had never heard of most the opening acts (Exodus and Arsis) that I would give this show a pass. And remember, my friend and I were only 14. So a couple days before the show played, my friend’s mom called me saying that she didn’t want my friend to be in the crowd by himself in case something happened; so she offered to buy me a ticket to the show! Seriously, who wouldn’t turn down free access to a metal show? So then I decided that it would be best if I looked up the other bands that were going to be at the show. The first band that was supposed to be there was Mutiny Within, whom I had already seen. I got an Exodus album and was minimally impressed (this was before I fell in love with all things thrash). I looked up Arsis on Spirit of Metal and saw that they were listed as “technical death”. Technical death? What the hell is that?? Although now I understand the definition of technicality in metal, this was something that I had only heard in The Black Dahlia Murder and All Shall Perish before I looked up this album.

Unlike Exodus, Arsis blew me away. The quartet hailing from Virginia has a sound that can trick anyone into thinking that they’re a European band (as it did with me). Having been in existence for over 10 years now, Arsis has a list of former members that is nearly the size of Black Sabbath’s. There aren’t that many huge death metal bands that have primarily screamed vocals, which is why it took the critics a little while before they were able to get their heads around the fact that Arsis is one of the most popular and influential tech death acts to come out of the 21st century.

Unlike some of the other albums I’ve reviewed, most of what’s on this record is pretty easy to describe. The guitar distortion on this album is still something I’ve never heard on another album (unless I forgot). The distortion has a very fuzzy sound that has some crackly noises (probably excess static from the fuzz effect). The bass even has some fuzz to it; along with the vocals being heavily distorted. Some people might perceive that as having too much editing and effects to cover up the band’s weaknesses. But after seeing them live, one comes to realize that this band has no weaknesses; only strengths. And the effects that are done in the studio only make them sound more awesome.

The song that initially took me off guard was obviously the opening track that starts off with a complex drum into that leads into a perfect demonstration of the two guitarists’ ability to control their instruments and bend them to their will. Although this skull-bursting track still remains my favorite Arsis song, the rest of A Celebration of Guilt tends to be…I guess somewhat weaker than The Face of My Innocence. Now what I’m NOT saying is that the songs all sound the same; the difference in the sound of every Arsis song in existence is enormous. The reason why I consider the majority of the album to be somewhat weak is because the songs basically aren’t as good as the ones on their most recent releases. But A Celebration of Guilt is still a definite classic in my book.

Having as much (and sometimes more) technicality than The Black Dahlia Murder, Arsis proved themselves to be true death metal masters by having the rare honor to have huge sales on their debut full-length within the first month of its release. Ever since then, they’ve done nothing but impress us even more with technicality, creativity, and more recently, fusing several different genres. I would definitely recommend that all of you listen to this and if you haven’t already, BUY IT! This album gets a score of 17/20.

WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW!!!!!!! IT'S THE FIRST SONG OFF THE ALBUM!

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