We Are the Nightmare

(Total rewrite, original shitty version posted on March 26th, 2008)

Arsis frustrates the fuck out of me. On one hand they released one of the hands down greatest albums in both tech death and melodeath simultaneously. A Celebration of Guilt bridged the gap between The Black Dahlia Murder and Necrophagist, and along the way it managed to craft some of the most enduring tracks in the genre. "The Face of My Innocence" alone justifies the band's existence all the way to the present day. They could've released that song as a single before replicating every Six Feet Under album in full and I'd still give them a shot whenever a new album came out. On the other hand, that's really the only time they managed to nail it. A Diamond for Disease is a great EP but it's basically the same idea as the debut, and it feels like it's coasting on that album's momentum. United in Regret was the point when the band began to stumble, with muddy production and a few bad ideas clogging up an otherwise good album. And in 2008 we met We Are the Nightmare, which signaled the moment they lost their balance completely and started tumbling down a mountainside.

The main problems with this album are both totally out of left field and completely logical. The previous album saw the beautiful cohesion of the band, despite their frantic technical ability, start to come apart at the seams. They held on for about half of the album, but there were more than a handful of moments where every instrument broke away from the meat of the song and orbited the emotional core while constantly colliding with each other. We Are the Nightmare is an album full to the brim with these moments. "Shattering the Spell" is a great example of this phenomenon, because nearly every second of that track sounds like four different guys trying to play four different solos at the same time, and instead of being chaotic in the good way, it's chaotic in the same way a room filled with four years olds on a collective sugar rush is. Comparing this particular song to Brain Drill is barely an exaggeration. I love flashy performances and I try to shy away from claiming that a band is doing a genre incorrectly, because it's presumptuous and stupid to assume that the band wants in their hearts to be Entombed but has so far failed to do so, but generally bands understand that you don't treat the drums like a lead instrument for the same reason you don't build a NASCAR with rear-axle steering. I should've seen this coming at the time because the band was definitely trending in the direction of total tech-metal overload, but it's still shocking because the precise reason Arsis was so good in the first place was specifically because they never did that.

The drumming is a huge problem here, and I think a lot of the blame can be laid at Darren Cesca's feet for this. Arsis has always been the brainchild of James Malone, but Mike Van Dyne was the secret genius behind the figurehead, and his spastic yet subdued drumming was a big reason why the songs where as catchy and memorable as they were during his tenure. I don't think it's a coincidence that as soon as the dude from Pillory took over, that backbone was snapped like Johnny Knox and suddenly the band's trademark infectiousness flew straight the fuck out the window. It's also worth noting that this was a weird era in metal criticism when nobody seemed to understand what drum triggers were and assumed it just meant the drums were programmed, and honestly I can't blame them for not knowing the distinction on this album since the performance is so robotically nonsensical and the triggers they used were so fucking unnatural sounding. Let's be real, death metal drums are rarely truly dynamic but here they are just constantly rattling around in the foreground louder than everything else by a sizable magnitude. Cesca treats his performance like a forty minute drum fill and it winds up being super distracting and aggravating.

We Are the Nightmare sports precisely three catchy choruses, which sounds like an odd complaint for a tech death album, but imagine a world where Dying Fetus pumps out an album with only three brain-squeezing slam-mosh riffs. This is what Arsis does, it's very much their thing. It's the entire reason that brilliant debut stuck with me as much as it did. Nobody else can craft songs where the riffs and solos are being played at the same time by the same guy and still have catchy sing-song choruses that are impossible to resist rasping along with. Tracks like "The Cold Resistance" and "The Sadistic Motives Behind Bereavement Letters" have vocal lines lifted straight out of a fucking Green Day record while still ripping faces off with molten fury. That simply doesn't happen here apart from the title track, "Servants to the Night", and "Failure's Conquest". The rest of the album is emblematic of everything the anti-tech death crowd claimed tech death was at the time.

It can be easy to forget since 2008 was twelve years ago now, but at the time tech death was really bundled with deathcore as the Bubba Ray and D-Von heel tag team of metal's Moral Panic Du Jour. Tech death in particular was seen by a lot of genre purists as a total bastardization of what made death metal so good in the first place because it completely erased the base riffing style of the parent genre and replaced everything with endless "wanking". Arsis, for a time, transcended that criticism because they were so cohesive and well put together, but We Are the Nightmare signaled them giving up on that and just joining the Deeds of Fleshes of the world by focusing on hyperfast technicality for the entire runtime. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because that era of tech death is great on its own merits and it's silly to compare it to Atheist or whatever for the same reason it's dumb to compare Hatebreed to Bad Brains, but it was a notable shift away from something unique and towards something trendy. Moments like the chorus of "Servants to the Night" are shining beacons of classic Arsis in a sea of nonsensical instrumental masturbation. It isn't bad because it's different, it's bad because it's really plain, which is something you could never accuse Arsis of being regardless of whether you liked them or not.

I'm contractually obligated to comment on the lyrics since I've made such a big stink about the hopeless Nice Guyisms that peppered Malone's lyrics on their previous work, but I honestly don't know how true it is this time. I'm thoroughly Brain Poisoned at this point so I can definitely make a case for how We Are the Nightmare continues the band's legacy of being the biggest Musical Madonna/Whore Complex in metal, but if that's true then it's at least more draped in metaphor than before. There are at least a couple of references to "three words" that either bind people or drive them to madness, which seems obvious enough since "three words" reference "I love you" in every instance of fiction ever written. Constant references to "silence" and people gladly watching somebody ruin their life can easily be interpreted as the narrator being bitter about his crush moving on with somebody else while everybody seems happy about it and only he notices the guy is a jerk, but I dunno. The endless callbacks to "shame" and "denial" and "sins" that happen "at night" are, if nothing else, a hell of a lot better than his whining about "your indifference" and a "wound" he desperately wants to "be inside", but if he's still on his friendzone bullshit I'll at least give him an A for effort in trying to obfuscate it this time. He only really drops the ball on "Progressive Entrapment" which is about as subtle as a kick in the taint but hey, he's trying.

I feel like it's no longer a hot take to call We Are the Nightmare the low point in Arsis's career. The muscianship is absolutely dazzling but at the end of the day, this one has the least amount of truly memorable songs, which is something at which the band was always stellar. The title track and "Servants to the Night" are great songs and I'll still go to bat for them, but they're the only worthwhile tracks among eight other chaotic blasts of meaningless spazzery. When they're on their game, Arsis can be one of the absolute best bands in their little niche, but when they're off, well, they release bland blasty sweepy nonsense like this. We know they can do better than this, and Malone's incredible strength of writing hooks is more or less squandered this time.


Originally written for Lair of the Bastard

I'll be fully upfront about this. I hate technical metal of pretty much any kind. Most of the time I feel like its a display of skill in playing and a complete lack of ability to actually write a good song. Arsis is the complete opposite of this. We are the Nightmare is a really great album with loads of killer songs. What I like about this band so much and this record in particular is the diversity of influences. Its clearly a death metal album but there are clear traces of some influences from old school heavy metal and some glam which I love. James Malone does a really excellent job mixing up parts of the songs that are a complete balls out shredfest with parts where he's very consciously putting forward some really great melodic content.

It's obvious that everyone in this band is a total monster at what instrument they play, but I really enjoy that they all have moments to shine. The drummer is pretty much always going ham which can be really cool to listen and pretty reminiscent of the drummer for Mastodon in that they're always off the rails doing fills which is pretty dope. Both James Malone and Ryan Knight have some killer solos too. Both dudes are some beast shredders but there's a few solos that really stood out to me as being really well developed and thought out (We are the Nightmare, Failure's Conquest). Probably the biggest downside to this album is the bass is pretty tough to hear which sucks because that bro is a badass. Watching live videos he's pretty much always going in and I would love to be able to hear more of what he's doing.

We are the Nightmare is a technical death metal album that transcends the mindless wankery and arrives at a healthy balance of asserting their technical skill and badassery with some really fun and interesting songs. The production quality, the playing, the vocals are all really well done and mixed and the album sounds really good. There's some serious diversity for the songs too. Definitely some pretty clear classical influence for most of them but a few tracks have a really old school feel, like My Oath to Madness for example. All in all really solid album and a great place to go for more involved music that's not just a bunch of sweeping front to back that doesn't sound like any cohesive piece of music.

We Are The Nightmare is an impressive feat of blending strong musicianship with good songwriting and a shameless use of prominent melodies and hooks. The songs are great, the guitar and bass work is great, and even the vocals are good, all used relatively tastefully for a "technical" style of music. The drumming is horrible, tasteless wankery, emphasized by the horrible production of Zeuss - these glaring flaws take an otherwise great album down a notch or two.

This is Arsis' first album without founding drummer Mike Van Dyne, who returned for the next one. Darren Cesca drums on this album with all of the restraint of a poorly programmed drum machine. The first bit of drumming on the album is high-speed blasting down four rack toms and that really sums up the whole album - nearly every moment seems like a high speed, aggressive fill. He seems to be from the Richard Christy school of drumming - hit everything, but without any sort of dynamics or restraint.

Producer Chris "Zeuss" Harris is best known for producing hardcore and metalcore bands, providing good, fitting production for Hatebreed and producing The Acacia Strain's "Continent" a few months after this one with a very similar production sound. Needless to say, he was the wrong man for the job. The drum sounds are horribly triggered with no regard for dynamics and they also seem to be the loudest thing in the mix, especifically the kick, snare, and toms. This means the whole album is a very tight performance of impressive guitar work that sounds like a demo recorded over drums programmed in Guitar Pro. Fuck this guy, he managed to do worse than Eyal Levi's butchering of their previous album.

The drumming and bad production might ruin most albums, but the guitar and bass playing on this one is quite fantastic. Mainman James Malone works with a second guitarist in the studio for the first time, Ryan Knight, formerly of The Knife Trade (check them out, they're good), then later in The Black Dahlia Murder (who he brought a lot to). Noah Martin adds some creative bass work, but Zeuss heard a joke about bass players in metal and wanted to play a joke the first time he worked with a competent bassist.

The key to utilizing great guitar work is the way Malone works hooks into each song. He is an excellent songwriter, allowing flashy guitar work to sometimes go on tangents, but never getting lost in it. The pairing of a simple guitar melody and rhythm with different parts the chorus of the title track is a great example. Ryan Knight works in interesting leads too, such as the intro to "Overthrown". There is some really interesting and memorable guitar work, buried in the production at times, that is worth listening to the album to hear. There's also some typical noodly stuff, but that's merely a consequence of the style.

Bottom line: the drumming and production make it a bit tough to listen to, but it's worth it. There is an upside to this album stronger than my negative words for the drummer and producer.

This album seems to be the target of a lot of hate on this site. I honestly can’t see why, as it is a fairly good album. I feel this band is far more talented than these other reviewers misleading reviews are giving them credit for. After all, they did graduate from the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston. (Which, although does not equal a good album, means there is a high standard for musicianship) First, the pros, as there are many good things about this album.

The guitar duo of Jim Malone and Ryan Knight is amazing. The intro riff to “Sightless Wisdom”, and the legato tapping part of “Servants to the Night” are great. There are even some pretty catchy vocal hooks to be heard in the title track, as well as “My Oath to Madness.” The guitar work is absolutely otherworldly, combining technicality with memorable songwriting. This album is filled to the brim with riffs. That alone is worth the price of admission. Despite the stellar guitar work, however, there are some drawbacks.

Quite possibly the most noticeable is the production of Zeuss. I have two bones to pick with Mr. Zeuss. The vocals sound atrocious. Arsis should stop using studio effects on vocals. (Behemoth too please) It does not sound good. Also, the drums are impenetrable. I will admit that Darren Cesca is just as much to blame for that with his stale drum performance. At least they recently were rejoined by Mike Van Dyne, who should give a more dynamic performance bashing the skins.

Overall, there is quite a bit to like about this album. The great songwriting and mind bending guitar work make this worth a listen. Despite a couple glaring flaws, this is still a solid album by a band I’m sure will be one of melodic tech death’s mainstays over the years. I hope this has finally set the record straight on the strengths and weaknesses of this album, and helped you make a decision.

Technical metal music is a fun concept, as any guitar player who also listens to the genre heavily will tell you. Arsis have had something of a revolutionary role in applying the concept to melodic death metal with their amazing debut “A Celebration Of Guilt“, considering that it’s a genre more known for pounding out repetitive melodies and being something of an antithesis to the concept of technical music. Since then they’ve drifted more towards a melodic death variant on something that I’ve come to call technical Chinese food metal. It tastes real good, you often find yourself wanting more of it later on, but it doesn’t really stick with you for very long.

“We Are The Nightmare” is one of the most blatant examples of an album that can be enjoyed by just about anyone who likes melodic death metal or any form of technical music from Malmsteen to Braindrill, yet you’d likely be hard pressed to find many people who can name more than 2 or 3 songs from it based on them standing out. It’s a pure straight shot of hyper speed aggression, loaded with signature melodic hooks, and steeped with enough crazy lead fills to make John Petrucci blush. The drum work could best be described as being in a state of tight fluidity, in that each hit is spot on in a sense of rhythmic precision that Neil Peart would approve of, yet also seems blurry and loose, to the point of sounding like Mark Zonder on a fist sized crack rock, there are so many fills and changeups.

The interesting thing is that if you actually are able to cancel out all of the various instrumental fills, this sounds about akin to the formal simplicity of Into Eternity’s “A Scattering Of Ashes”, albeit without the big clean sung choruses. Even songs that seem to be built entirely on lead fills and riff fragments such as “Shattering The Spell” and “Failing Winds Of Hopeless Greed” have very easily discerned structures with obvious verse and chorus sections, despite the constant barrage of lead harmonies and blast beats. The vocal work of James Malone is the only real anchor that keeps this from just being an ocean of counterpoint lines and drum calisthenics. It’s a pretty straightforward mixture of semi-whispered growls and low end death barks, not all that different from what you’d hear out of most Gothenburg bands, but a welcomed element of simplicity within this 40 minute fit of technical overachieving.

It’s somewhat frustrating that this band can’t seem to just limit themselves to a few guitar solos per song, because almost every riff presented on here sounds good. “Progressive Entrapment” has a really solid chorus and a couple of interesting bridge section ideas, but the verse is all but completely obscured by off-the-cuff shred bursts. “Failure’s Conquest” has an excellent intro that builds up gradually into a solid verse riff, but when the chorus comes in they just load on the guitar tapping like no tomorrow and you have trouble hearing what little bottom end remains. In fact, one of the greatest weaknesses in this album’s overall sound that emerges from the overuse of the high range is a very light sound. It’s still quite aggressive and extreme sounding, but the signature and constant heaviness associated with most metal genres just tends to come and go here.

The thing that ultimately gets lost on this album is the general concept of songwriting. The contents found on here listen more like classical etudes on electric guitar, with harsh vocals, rather than the sort of easily identified metal song that most could instantly identify upon hearing. It’s a very fun listen, but it tends to work best in small doses. Apart from the title song “We Are The Nightmare”, “Overthrown” and “Servants To The Night” these songs tend to run together. It would be a good pickup for someone who likes Braindrill’s brand of technical insanity but with a little more of a sense of slowing down and speeding up, and some actual hooks mixed in; though to most who don’t listen to death/grind this album would still sound incredibly fast and hard to follow. This band has done better, but there’s far worse out there.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on April 7, 2009.

I’d only heard bits and pieces of Arsis until now, as I’d partially written them off as a modern trend following band – which I generally have minimal interest in.
But as it turns out, whilst they are very much a “modern” style of band- their 3rd and latest release “We Are The Nightmare” has shown me that they are a very impressive, tight and dynamic group with some very interesting ideas compositionally.

The music itself is quite melodic, but also quite technical at times. The musicianship itself is one of the most impressive elements, all players on the recording are very skilled on their individual instruments. All riffs and drum work are executed sharply and with precision, and the excellent tone on the guitars make every section very audible and nothing ever gets lost.

These guys seem to draw influence from many sources, I hear elements of Necrophagist, At The Gates, (latter) Carcass and several other extreme but melodic groups. But still, they combine these elements in such a way they don’t sound like a complete clone of anyone.

The majority of the album is very up tempo, but due to the “prettiness” of some of the riffs you don’t feel too smothered by this. Their composition is quality, the songs flow well and there’s barely any throwaway sections.
The album is peppered with lots of tasteful and at times quite technical leads, with sweep picking being quite a feature of both these and many riffs. They work and blend quite nicely.
The vocals and at times even their application remind of Jeff Walker (Carcass) quite a bit, and don’t move too far from a raspy scream – but they are very suitable for the style, and are mixed will within the overall sound.
The drumming is very impressive, the album featuring Darren Cesca – a player well known within brutal death metal circles due to his work with Goratory, Strappado and now Incinerate. The playing is extreme, but also versatile and has good groove and feel.

All in all, this is a very catchy, well performed and excellently produced cd.
I like when I am surprised by bands, and these guys have certainly done that. So, if you are a fan of modern, technical but melodic metal then this is definitely an album for you. It’s really a very strong release – I am unsure how often it’ll hit my cd player, but I can safely say it will again at some point.

Even being a fan of Arsis, I’ll be the first to admit that United in Regret was pretty much a complete suckfest. It had all the symptoms of a sophomore slump: uninspired riffs, repetitive structures, solos that showed no emotion and never went anywhere, and an overall lack of the inspirational fire that made their debut, A Celebration of Guilt so enjoyable. After the release of their marvelous EP, A Diamond for Disease (which was actually written after much of the material on United in Regret, to no surprise) many fans were excited about but ultimately let down by the uninspired, repetitive mess that was United in Regret. Thankfully, Arsis has rewarded their fans’ patience with We Are the Nightmare, which I would consider to be their best and most cohesive album to date.

On previous releases, Arsis wrote and recorded as a two-man project. Now that Arsis has four full-time members helping to write, it’s obvious that they’re able to come up with more ideas and pour them together into great, cohesive songs instead of just depending on 2 minutes worth of ideas dragged for 4-5 minutes. James Malone’s signature guitar style is still quite apparent on the album (expect lots of arpeggios!), but it seems a great burden has been lifted from his shoulders in the writing process with the help from the new members, ultimately making the album more varied and feel less forced as a whole.

Arsis’ debut, A Celebration of Guilt was a great album, but suffered in part due to the fact that it lacked its own identity. I mean, it was well executed, but it wore its influences (Dissection and At the Gates especially) on its sleeves to a great extent. Even though United in Regret showed signs of uniqueness, it still sucked too much for me to really care. With We Are the Nightmare, Arsis is certainly moving into their own niche in the metal world with a sound that is unmistakably theirs.

The riffing on the album is impressive, both technically and creatively speaking. It shifts between atonal and uneven to emotively melodic frequently, with plenty of jarring stop-start moments and superbly executed counterpoint harmonies, all while maintaining a balance between (tasteful) technicality, dynamics, and songwriting. It’s more technical than anything else they’ve put out for sure, but they now pull it off much more tastefully than a lot of the pointless wanky parts on United in Regret and the technicality never seems forced. Killer riffs like the chorus riff in “Failing Winds of Hopeless Greed” and the riff after the chorus in “Servants to the Night” are pretty much the reason I listen to metal. Yeah, they’re that good, and they’re damn consistent throughout, never boring me or having me waiting for the next phrase to start.

The riffs also seem to bear a certain power metal-like catchiness; they aren’t ever really evil or crushing like most death metal, but kind of dwell in other metal realms while not forgetting the band’s melodic death metal roots. The album is, for lack of better terminology, fun and not afraid to show it. This is the sort of thing I usually find very out of place in death metal, but it seems to me that their shameless approach to just having fun with their music has allowed them to excel in this sense. The soloing on the album is nothing short of awesome as well; they’re always inspiring, placed impeccably and never seem to be the only thing carrying a song like solos too often do. Instead, they compliment the overall feeling that each song is working to communicate.

Now onto the drumming…well, it’s alright. I’m not going to deny that Darren Cesca is an insanely talented drummer, since he’s definitely doing much more than just holding his own behind the kit. But therein lies the problem: he’s doing way too much. He’s the sort of drummer that won’t find a beat and stick with it for more than a few seconds at a time, which I guess fits the album to a degree since the guitar work is very technical and shifts a lot, but it seems like he’s constantly trying to one-up the guitars with how ‘tech’ his drumming is and it gets a little distasteful sometimes. For some reason, he uses four (four!) snare drums, two of which sound like bongos and the other two sound so similar that it makes you wonder why he even bothers. This makes the drums a little more annoying, due in large part to the fact that he sometimes decides it’s a good idea to blastbeat on the bongo-sounding ones when it clearly isn’t. He does a good enough job holding the album together, but his drumming can make the album a little hard to listen to at first because it’s so sporadic.

James Malone has never really been agreed to be the best death metal vocalist by any means; his blackened brand of growling seems to be off-putting for several individuals who claim his vocals are grating. On previous albums, his vocals suffered from excessive use of layering for pretty much no reason most of the time, and I’m glad they didn’t do it on this album as much because I’m not going to lie, it was very grating after a while. His voice doesn’t sound nearly as frustrated or angry as it did before unfortunately though, probably due to the clear production they’ve opted for this time around. The vocals are still effective though, and he comes up with a lot of memorable patterns and the lyrics are very easily understood which is also a plus. People who didn’t like his voice before certainly won’t find anything new to like about it here, but for those who liked it (or could tolerate it), not a lot has changed.

All in all, We Are the Nightmare exceeded my expectations and then some. For what it is, it’s definitely excellent and shows that Arsis has their shit together yet again. It’s definitely their most consistent and focused release yet, while somehow managing to be their most varied as well. And yeah, it’s a hell of a lot better than United in Regret, so what more could a fan ask for?

Edit: lowered the score by 10 points because this gets old really quick. It's good for an occasional spin but it loses its flavor quickly.

With the debut of Arsis’ A Celebration of Guilt, the world of melodic death metal was turned on its head. For years after the release of Slaughter of the Soul by the venerable At The Gates in ’95, bands had been copying their distinct sound (known as the Gothenburg sound) with reckless and plagiaristic abandon. What made Arsis so revolutionary in their approach was that it was completely different from the bands of the time; melodic leads that didn’t resort to ordinary convention, brilliantly poetic lyrics, and some extremely creative drumming. To top this off, Arsis was only a 2-piece band! Despite all this early success, the band never stopped trying and a year later released the legendary A Diamond for Disease EP. With expectations so high for the band, the release of the follow up United in Regret silenced many fans. It wasn’t Arsis. It was far too complex, too math-like, too much brutality and not enough melody. It was awful. But with 2008’s We are the Nightmare, the band has nearly come full circle.

To put it succinctly, We Are the Nightmare not a bad album. It has plenty of technicality and the majority of the riffs are infused with hefty doses of melody. The problem lies within the album’s overindulgences. Guitarist James Malone has demonstrated over the course of the band’s career that he is very talented when it comes to wielding the axe; but with We Are The Nightmare too many of his riffs aren’t riffs, they’re leads (much like the latest Decrepit Birth album). The sheer quantity of shredding on this disc would put many neo-classical outfits to shame. Songs like “Shattering The Spell” would make more sense if Yngwie Malmsteen was making a guest appearance on the album, not the esteemed, but of late misguided, Malone.

Another problem I had with We Are the Nightmare latest offering was the drumming. Yes, blast beats are cool. Sure, playing at 300 beats per minute is impressive. But for the love of all that is holy, end all this start/stop nonsense. Drummer Darren Cesca has the chops (the guy played with Goratory for crying out loud), but too much of what he does interrupts the flow of the songs, making the already complex leads sound even more convoluted with his hyper-blasting, choppy style. Arsis used to be renowned for the heavy groove old drummer Mike Van Dyne created (as well as some astonishingly intricate cymbal work). Cesca lacks the groove of yore, but his playing is as tight as it was on Rice on Suede (Goratory’s swansong)

There are many positive aspects to this album in spite of all my previous criticism. Malone’s vocals are as on point as ever. He epitomizes the melodic death metal voice; just enough rasp to convey the fury of the lyrics, but not enough as to obscure the message. Also, Arsis has crafted some very catchy chorus’ rivaling some of the old tunes. Songs like the title track “We Are the Nightmare” and the album highlight “Sightless Wisdom” contain some superb examples of surgically precise melodic songwriting. If the album was full of more jams like these, I’d be more willing to overlook some of the unneeded guitar acrobatics that plague the latter half of the album.

The production on We Are the Nightmare also warrants a mention. I remember reading in an interview that the guitars were intentionally made to sound thin, similar to 80’s thrash albums. The first few listens were full of head scratching on my end as to why Arsis would do such a thing. Where is the power? However, the more I took the album in as a whole, the more accustomed I got to the sound. It’s like your first beer; it tastes terrible, but after forcing yourself to keep drinking over time, it gets better until you can’t remember disliking it at all.

Arsis have more or less redeemed themselves from their previous full length. We Are the Nightmare is a step up and in the right direction. With the melody again taking center stage, the qualities that first endeared this band to the masses are back. However, this hedonistic wankery that they’re calling riffs has to stop. Fans of technically complex tunes will enjoy this immensely. But as for me, I’ll continue to hope for Arsis to close the circle.

Holy crap!

That is all I can really say at this point. About 25 spins into this album and I am still completely blown away. I've been an Arsis fan since the beginning and I am pretty much convinced that this is their best offering so far. First of all, why are people reviewing this that don't even like the genre and giving it 9 and are bad mouthing it?! I hate power metal, but I'm not going to review the new Kamelot and give it a 5 just because I'm bored. On simple guitar merit alone and nothing else, this deserves at least a 75. You cannot possibly review this album untill you've heard each song at least 15-20 times. I think a lot of people are still hung up by how great "Celebration of Guilt" was and the major drummer change. Arsis may have lost some fans that prefer some groove in their metal and can't stomach real technical death. Cesca does bring a more choppy, technical style and yes they have lost some of their groove. Another thing, this album really has nothing in common with Brain Drill. Come on. This is WAY more controlled, executed slower and with more thought and inspiration.

This is the best guitar work I have ever heard from James Malone and some of the best guitar work ever, period. This stuff is incrediblely SICK. Solos, sweeps, leads, harmonized arpeggios, hammer on's and off's, thrashy riffs, melodic death and black metal riffs, on and on and on, you name it, this guy can do it all and the reason his stuff stands out, is because it IS so darn catchy and thoughtout. Every song has at least 1 riff or a solo or a crazy harmonized lead that will get stuck in your head. Everytime I listen to this album I hear something new and it keeps me coming back for more. Thats the beauty of "We Are The Nightmare".

Now to mention the drums. Which are pretty darn solid. Tons of blast beats with multiple snares, dominate the songs. Lots of double bass abuse of course and multiple interesting fills and rolls that keep you on your toes. All of this executed with a pretty original style. However the bass drums do sound a little thin and seem a bit over-produced. A very minor detail and once you get into it, you don't even notice. I'm not sure which drummer I prefer at this point. You kind of just have to realize the drumming is why the two albums sound so different and THE reason why some of the old fans are complaining. Good stuff overall and a good replacement in my mind.

The vocals are the same. James' trademark black metalish rasps. With a few lower growls provided by Cesca. Cool and dark lyrics of course and some great memorable sections like: "This is my oath to the.... MADNESS!!" Again, memorable passages that will get stuck in your head.

So in conclusion, this is probably going to be my favorite release of 2008. This is some of the best and innovative metal I have ever heard. Don't let the negative reviews from the groove metal fans lure you away from checking this out. If you have any interest in melodic death, technical death, modern thrash or maybe even melodic black metal, do yourself a favor and check this out asap. Trust me. A shining glimer of hope for quality American metal, that can compete with the Scandinavians.

Arsis are one of the few technical bands I didn't hate, they had this unusual degree of charm that made their technicality much less grating and wankish than what their contemporaries were peddling like razor-filled candy at Halloween. In much the same way that Godwin's Law must grace every single corner of the internet with it's horrifyingly retarded presence, it seems that the majority of death metal bands are destined to suck (as t tends to infinity of course). Where as 'United in Regret' sucked because it was dull and uninspired, 'We are the Nightmare' sucks because there's far too much going on instrumentally whilst the fundamental attributes to any genre of music are ignored.

I do feel somewhat sorry for Arsis though, with the tech death scene reproducing at a rate of coked-up rabbits and with the near entirety of that offspring rivalling your average trailer park inhabiting white trash for mental prowess and physical repulsion it was inevitable that the black hole of tech death mediocrity would pull them in without much effort. At times it's rather difficult to tell that you're actually listening to an Arsis album because they've hideously mangled any unique aspect that had originally set them apart from the rest of the scene. You could play a random assortment of songs from 'Diminishing Between Worlds', 'Apocalyptic Feasting' and 'We are the Nightmare' for an hour straight and I'd be hard pressed to tell you which was the worst of the lot because not only do all these albums feast heavily from a dish of excessive wank but they're all utterly indistinguishable. Unless you're one of those babbling mongoloids who spends at least eight hours every day listening to these mouth breathers. Oh sure they could sweep pick or blast beat their way out of a paper bag lined with depleted uranium-238 but ask them to write a memorable or interesting song and suddenly they're weeping heavily, begging for you to release them from their mortal coil even if you had to do it with a blunt, carbon-fibre butter knife. A request that I personally would enjoy to the point of achieving multiple orgasms from every orifice on my pasty body.

So what does this album achieve? Nothing in any sense of the word, you remember how at school they'd give the less intellectually inclined students those awards for effort, just so the snot-streaked fuckbags could justify their parents spending $2000 a term for some fancy private school? If Arsis was that vacant-eyed, waste of elements and molecules I think it would be socially accepted, if not revered, for those parents to beat their child over the head with a meat tenderiser. There's nothing neither catchy nor fun about this album. Riffs are practically a non-entity and seem to exist just to make noise in between the incessant sections of arpeggios and sweep picks, and in the rare event they're not wanking off their guitars every five seconds the drums decide to wank all over the place instead. The album is buried under an avalanche of excessive and awkwardly placed blast beats, innumerable drum fills and double bass drums that are far too high up in the mix. In fact this album would probably get some sort of score in the double digits had it not been for the drums thinking they were the lead fucking instrument; I wasn't aware that keeping the beat with a mix of tasteful digressions had become something only the unpopular kids do. Bass guitar? Oh I'm sure he's there, but this is modern technical death metal, there's no place for that shit right? Notice the inclusion of the word modern? Go listen to Atheist and then you'll see why the distinction has to be made; in pants-shitting fear of said band causing my face to implode with their awesome riffs and jazzy bass lines if I say anything even remotely negative about them.

Sorry to go on a tangent, all you really need to know is that this album is shite. I'm going to conform to the usual hipster war cry of "Their first album was better!" because frankly it fucking well was and thinking otherwise should be grounds for being castrated so that your retard babies shan't infect the rest of humanity with your poor taste in music. For those of you who can blow through a box of Kleenex as you listen to the other two albums mentioned in the second paragraph then this album is made for you dribbling incontinents. Arsis may end up being a good band again some time in the future, the first step would be hoping that their current drummer dies in some freak gardening accident.

“But it’s not A Celebration of Guilt “

Yeah? No shit.

Unfortunately, many of the original fans of A Celebration of Guilt seem to feel that the niche sound that album created was the entirety of the band. It wasn’t. It isn’t.

An obviously continuing departure from A Celebration of Guilt exists here. We Are The Nightmare is an album that showcases the strongest musicianship and technicality of any Arsis soundscape to date. You should note how musicianship and song writing are not the same thing (No, you get zero credit).

Upon first listen I wasn’t overly impressed. It seemed like the drums were just mindless torrents of blasts and fills used for the sole purpose of letting the guitars wank globs of melody all over each other.

“LOL JAMES, MY HANDS ARE ALL STICKY :(“

After many subsequent listens I still feel the occasional surfacing of this original impression, but rarely. The drums tend to remain at a likewise furious pace for the duration of the album, but there is far more variety and alternations than one notices upon the first few spins of We Are The Nightmare. As for production? The percussion is as tight as any hole you could imagine. You also won’t find any hollow and ridiculously stretched snare sounds here. Cesca lacks a little of the groove and feel that VanDyne brought, but he adds more energy and aggression.

The guitars are pretty amazing at times, but can get a little irritating at others. There are some seriously brilliant solos, fills and melodies contained in the music, but I couldn’t help but think at times “Fuck, man, just play a riff. You don’t need to cover every spot on the fretboard”. Beyond the occasionally excessive wankery, the guitars are good. Not great. They generally tend to lack a little bit of the memorability of tunes from the ACOG era. After multiple listens, I dig them as a whole, but they still seem to be a little lifeless. This is pretty much where the previously mentioned declination of song writing comes in. United In Regret had this as well

The vocals are good. I shouldn’t have to explain them. Cesca does some backing vocals which stack pretty well most of the time. The lyrics can get a little repetitive and uninspiring, but they’re not awful.

I'm a fan of Arsis, but this album is by no means perfection. Note, though, that it deserves a hell of a lot more than the 9% tossed at it in one of the previous, awful reviews.

"So, what do you guys want the new album to sound like?"

"Let's make some more music like our debut album. A Collaboration of Guilt, wuzzit?"

"Nah, that would be boring. We need to keep up with the times."

"So what do you suggest, Mister Smarty Pants?"

"Let's add a lot of technical drum fills and riffs, and totally rob all of the songs of any sort of emotion they might have had otherwise. It's all the rage these days!"

"Sounds great to me!"

I don't know what goes on in Arsis's recording studio these days, but I imagine this is at least somewhat close to the band's thought process upon writing and recording this album. Seriously, why the flying fuck does EVERY SINGLE BAND in this genre feel the need to go "technical" on us? Is it just because this sort of music is popular these days with Necrophagist's rise to fame? It certainly can't be because these bands think they actually sound good. Either way, I'm sick of it, and I'm also extremely disappointed with Arsis this time around - I liked A Celebration of Guilt well enough, as it was an original, fresh take on a stale genre, with powerful guitar harmonies, stellar songwriting and some excellent lyrics to boot, and their sophomore effort was okay at best, if extremely unmemorable, but this...this is where I put my foot down.

We Are the Nightmare is not quite as bad in the songwriting department as Decrepit Birth's latest flaming pile of unmitigated shit, as it still has a few flairs of the classy old Arsis style melodies (few and far between), but it is exceedingly boring. All of the tech death staples are firmly in place, from the angular, jagged riffing, the polished, open sounding production, the endless drum fills and complicated beats, and the winding, diving solos, and it all sounds so bland and pre-processed that it sounds like it came straight out of a cookie-cutting board (the same one that Decrepit Birth has been using lately, too). This is all so bland and inoffensive that I'm starting to think that Nuclear Blast should start serving Happy Meals with these!

Sure, there are a lot of drum fills, and yeah, there are definitely a lot of guitar riffs and solos, but quantity doesn't matter if you can't do anything compelling or interesting with it, and Arsis certainly aren't. That's the thing I hate the most about this "tech death" fad. All these solos, all these drum fills and fast riffs playing off of eachother - it's nothing but soulless "WOW, THAT WAS COOL!!1!" fodder for the kids who think Morbid Angel is too soft and Obituary is too slow. The kids who bash AC/DC for being "too repetitive." It's all instant gratification, this technical death metal; not memorable or exciting or really anything. This music is melodic, technical nothingness; entirely lacking in balls and creative innovation, serving only to remind you that yes, technical death metal is all the rage right now, and it's not going away any time soon.

Arsis are still good songwriters (although they rarely show it here), and I can hear bits and pieces of the genius that shaped their debut here, but they're lost to the world of metal forever. Sellouts, in layman's terms. They're done. They were fucking done the moment they decided to start following the Trend of the Day and doing exactly what every other Death Metal band was getting popular by doing. In fact, just to make sure I wasn't just dreaming up this "sellout" theory, I listened to a couple tracks off of Arsis's debut again, and compared them to We Are the Nightmare, and I could barely even recognize the band now, save for the vocals (which are now completely devoid of any cool little nuances like the solo rasping bit in the beginning of "Dust and Guilt," by the way). I then listened to this again, and compared it to Necrophagist and Decrepit Birth, and guess what? It all sounds the same. That's right, same style of riffage, same drumming, and the same awkward sense of melody. Same everything. You know it's a trend when every band playing the style starts to sound alike. It happened with nu-metal back in the 90s, and it happened with metalcore just a few years back, and now it is happening with this new technical death style too - just because this style is more definitely "metal" doesn't make it any less acceptable, folks. Arsis have failed, sacrificing an enjoyable and dynamic sound for watered down crap, and that is unacceptable.

There are no standout songs on We Are the Nightmare, and not even any decent ones. Arsis may be getting more and more popular as the sun rises and sets every day, and they may have a big name label behind them now, but that won't last forever, and when they (and every other band of their ilk) fall, I'll be there, just to say "I told you so."

Originally written for http://www.metalcrypt.com

Coming into this album, I didn't know what to expect. Arsis’ previous CD United in Regret has taken its hold on me, and kept me highly interested in this band. But after 2 strong CD's, both in which inspired me, I was eager to hear if they upheld their musical genius.

And after giving this CD plenty of listens, I must say they have surpassed any previous album they have put out... even A Celebration of Guilt.

This CD has it all, melody, brutality, chaos (in a good way), talent, and well formed songs that will keep you coming back for more.

The music, as a hole, is perfect. The recording on this album is amazing, but not “to” amazing. It still manages to captures a dark and brutal atmosphere. Every instrument is captured perfectly, and there is a great mix amongst everything going on. At any point throughout the whole album, I could easy focus on any 1 instrument, which is VERY HARD to find in death metal. Now as for the music I must warn you, this album is technical! But don’t be scared off by the word technical, as Arsis has a perfect mix of chaos and melody. They aren’t technical just to be technical. Every guitar riff, blast beat, and solo are perfectly molded together to create this masterpiece.

The first thing that stands out to me is the vocals. James Malone’s vocals are some of the best in death metal. There are vocal influences of both death metal and black metal, but it keeps the same feel as the other albums. His voice stands out amongst the other bands of the genre. And for all you out there that are tired of reading lyric sheets for your favorite songs, all the vocals on every song are audible!! To me, the vocals are a perfect mix of black/death metal, and fit in perfectly with the music.

Next is the guitar work on this album. In 2 simple words it can be described as, “utterly amazing”. The guitar work is a storm of technicality, brutality, melodic, and sheer beauty. Every emotion felt by the guitar work is captured perfectly, and none is overpowering the other. The riffs ARE technical, but they are neither misplaced, nor over technical. They bring forth such emotion and diversity, that each song will keep your attention for the whole song. Another plague of this genre is random solos that are completely out of place. I can assure you that each solo on this album is fit perfectly into the songs without being overly long and boring.

I don’t have much to say about the bass, except for the fact that I can hear it! In every song I can remember the bass being very apparent and leaving me with a vivid memory of specific bass lines that ripped faces off. Bass is often disregarded as a less talented instrument that holds no purpose to the music. However, this CD is living proof that there are extremely talented bassists that are an extreme part of the final outcome of the music.

My final praise is amongst the drums. Being a drummer, I understand the accusations of death metal using too many blast beats, having extremely boring double bass, and being overly fast just for the sake of being fast. However in this CD, those accusations are false. Darren Cesca has filled this position in ways I cannot describe! There are blast beats, and fast double bass, however it is played in a way that make me stop in amazement. Also, they are in no way over technical. There are slow parts, fast parts, groovy parts, technical parts, and everything in-between. His blast beats are played in a manor in which they where meant to be played. Also, the variation of what he is playing leaves me speechless. The only way to truly capture his playing is to listen to this CD!

Overall, this album leaves me breathless. It is everything Arsis has worked so hard to become, and so much more! They have completely outdone themselves this time! This is probably my album of the year, and will defiantly take homage in my car’s CD player for the next few months.

One of this year's highly anticipated releases is finally here. The question on everyone’s mind is, can Arsis return to glory? Will this album meet the greatness set by A Celebration of Guilt or will they continue on the path of below average death metal like on United In Regret? When you don't have to worry because this album surpasses A Celebration of Guilt in every possible way.

The first thing you will most likely notice is the wonderful production values this album has. Not one instrument sounds low or badly placed in the mix, each one of them shines on its own and together.

The guitar is the real highlight of this album, from the opening acoustic to the last riff it leaves you stunned and amazed thinking what the fuck just happened? Malone is a genius at composing great and memorable riffs that will stick with you for long after the final track. Songs like We Are the Nightmare, Failing Hands Winds of Hopeless Greed and Failure’s Conquest show this perfectly. His solos are also more brilliant than ever, specifically the one in Failing Hands Winds of Hopeless Greed. The guitar work on the final track Failure’s Conquest shows why he is a genius, acoustic melodies and solos that work beautifully together. I’ve seen lots of people say that this album is just being technical to be technical, and that the sweeps have no need here, I say bullshit. They work perfectly, the leads are catchy and draw you in while the rhythm crushes you. I’m much happier with this then long pretentious drawn out crappy riffs. I’m not saying that’s what A Celebration of Guilt was, I’m just sick of people saying Arsis is trying to be Necrophagist when they aren’t. They took a sound they already had and evolved it even more.

Next up we have the vocals and lyrics. Malone’s vocals are a mix of black metal and death metal. His typical voice sounds more like the traditional high pitched scream used by bands like The Black Dahlia Murder. However his growls aren’t completely gone, he will use some sick lows every now and then. They sound much better here then any previous album, you can understand every word that is said, which is a huge plus for death metal. The lyrics are fucking fantastic! They invoke this sense of darkness in you that I cannot explain. No lyrics are released at the moment but it wasn’t a problem making them out. I love the chorus to Servants to the Night and My Oath to Madness. They’re in your face and make you want to sing for days.

The drums are fucking spot on. Darren had a hard act to follow up set by Michael VanDyne, and he doesn’t fail once. The drums aren’t all over the place like most technical death metal bands do nowadays. Darren isn’t blast beating just for the sake of saying “look I’m fast!!!”, also like most bands do nowadays. Through out the whole album he keeps his tempo paced with the guitars not to overlap it and also not to slow down. The drums back up the strong melodies made by the guitars and it sounds wonderful. Darren’s blast beats sound perfect, well placed and controlled while still feeling vicious.

Overall the sound of this album is pretty much Protest the Hero meets The Black Dahlia Murder, which is not a bad thing at all. I didn’t expect much coming into this album seeing how United In Regret was such a let down but I’m currently on my 20th listen of this album and it hasn’t bored me yet. Most likely to be my album of the year and will keep me listening well into the later parts of the year and 2009.