ARSIS RETURNS

Got the new Arsis album, United In Regret, in Saturday's mail. It's even more mind-roasting than their full-length debut, A Celebration Of Guilt (I haven't heard the in-between EP, A Diamond For Disease, though I'm almost surely going to buy it when they come to town next month). These two guys (vocalist/guitarist, and drummer) are making highly intricate but also extremely melodic death metal that, to be frank, blows Necrophagist's last album right out of the lake of fire. It's not as fist-pumping as Arch Enemy or some other Scandinavian acts; more in the spirit of the recent Deicide album, packed as that was with loop-de-loop guitar solos and other ear-pleasing treats, amid Benton's usual yammer. (Oh yeah, Arsis are also another one of the young bands who've decided Satan really doesn't need them bigging him up all the time; their lyrics nudge right up to being intelligent.) It comes out tomorrow, so go pick it up. And they're on tour, so go check 'em out. I saw them as part of a Willowtip package at BB King's awhile back (Necrophagist/Neuraxis/Arsis) and left with ACOG in my backpack, so I hope you'll be as impressed as I was.