Artas - Riotology (2011)

I wasn't impressed by the Artas debut The Healing in 2008, but it was at least a competent exercise of modern death/thrash which probably leans a little bit in the 'melodeath' territory so prevalent in Sweden and Finland. Riotology boasts all the merits of that album, with the huge, clean production values and punchy if average riffs, and a rather enormous track list (about 16 tracks to the prior effort's 13), but it also falls short to many of the same flaws, and fails to distinguish itself among such a huge crowd of peers. To be blunt, there is nothing here you can't already get listening to Soilwork, Scar Symmetry, or any of a dozen other big names in this field.

No matter how huge, or dense the mix of the guitars is, the riffs being performed here all sound like they took mere moments to conceive. Tracks like "Fortress of No Hope" and "The Day the Books Will Burn Again" are choke with pedestrian, derivative groove riffs that have nothing to stand on other than the substantial foundation of the recording. There is very little musicality, each song seems to consist of a bludgeoning riff or two that transitions into the radio friendly clean vocal chorus that bands like In Flames, Soilwork and so forth built their careers on in the late 90s and the dawn of the 21st century, with a dash of that aggressive Pantera tough guy emotion. What's even stranger, the band starts to cycle through individual languages in the titles and lyrics of "Rassenhass", "No Pasaran", "Gipfelstürmer", and "Le Saboteur", in some crass attempt at diversifying themselves, but nothing sticks, nor do the hammy clean guitar/vocal pieces called "O5".

I'm not always opposed to modern groove metal elements if they're memorably written (like The Defaced from Sweden), but I swear I could not remember a note of this once I was finished listening through. Aside from the fact that there are songs in different languages, there is nothing but a mix of stock, phoned in riffs sauteed in massive studio sound, and flat falling emotional moments void of aspiration. Riotology doesn't even seem to hit the same mark as its predecessor, The Healing, which featured a cover of "Gangsta's Paradise" of all things. This sophomore, seems to exist on its own puerile testosterone, fleet and fading quickly, nearly 70 minutes of bludgeoning, refractory waste.

Verdict: Fail [4.5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/artasmetal

Artas - The Healing (2008)

Artas is a new band performing a hybrid of melodic death and thrash metal with a lot of brutal, simplistic breakdowns which verge on metalcore but never quite arrive there (at least for me, personally). They've got a very pummeling sound, seeming as if were made perfect for the European mosh pit audiences. I'm also kind of surprised this is on Napalm Records, they seem to be branching out lately with some other styles than their black/gothic/avant-garde metal roots.

Unfortunately I couldn't get very deep into this album. At times the melodic death elements are quite glorious and remind me of bands like Amon Amarth, they also use some pretty cool vocals and layer in some melodic backup vocals which does tend to work. The downside is the sheer amount of breakdowns that do very little for me as far as my attention. The band is clearly at their best when raging out on faster tracks like "Bastardo" or "The Healing". I don't have the lyrics to the album, but from the titles like "Barbossa" and "A Song of Ice and Fire" they seem to be into some genre stuff. Then again, other titles lead me to believe otherwise.

The production on the album is killer: the guitars are chunky, the bass is quite audible and the vocals really stand out. The band's style overall is a bit original, it doesn't confirm strictly to thrash or death metal or even metalcore, just an aggressive medium. The bottom line is just that, beyond the occasional standout riff, many of the songs did nothing for me.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

http://www.myspace.com/artasmetal