United in Regret

United In Regret is a sophomore slump for a very talented band. The drumming and lead guitar work is good, but most of the guitar work and the production leave a huge gap between them. The songwriting is much weaker than Arsis, before and after this.

All of the songs feel like a mess in terms of songwriting and arrangement; while their debut managed to integrate great lead playing with solid rhythm work and prominent melodies, all of those seem to run together and fall apart several times in each song. The drumming and rhythm guitars don't seem to be in sync in terms of what they are doing most of the time. While they are in time together, the rhythm playing seems like "something is happening" and nobody is really sure what it is. There's tons of flashy lead work laid over the top, but it's all so damned disorganized that it hardly comes together in songs.

"The Marriage Bed" shows a strong contrast to similarly-styled riffing in the previous album, "The Face Of My Innocence". The song on the debut was very clear and tight, both melodic and percussive, and it sounded really cool. This album's guitar sound runs together more like I'd expect of doom metal where it might be good for everything to blend together, rather than the lack of clarity that loses most of what is going on in tech-death. The only thing that has much of a rhythmic feel is the drums, which have a really tight, fast sound while the attack of the guitar is painfully slow. The two don't sound together at all.

The production is simply awful. The lead guitar tone is alright, but the rhythm guitars are fuzzy and have very little clarity, so they lack the percussive sound that makes it easy to hear the cool rhythmic stuff that's happening. The guitar sound might be right for something much slower and atmospheric, but it's a terrible combination with fast, punchy drums that do sound right for this type of music. Both the songwriting and production seem lost and out of sync and doesn't sound like it's made for a fast, dynamic band, but the music is fast and dynamic, though disjointed. Eyal Levi hasn't produced much since this, likely an acknowledgement by everyone who heard this that he sucks.

This is Arsis' weakest moment: entirely forgettable and not a very good representation of what the band does.