Arsis
United in Regret

Release Date: 2006 | Tracklist

Lugosi’s child bears his namesake
Within this monument we hide from shame, from uncontrolled emotions and untold atrocities.
-- “…And the Blind One Came”

Next to the new Unearth and Mastodon albums, this has been the most anticipated album of the year for me. I have been a huge fan of Arsis for about a year now and I certainly won’t be stopping any time soon, especially after just hearing this album. Arsis entered the death metal scene and really took melodic death metal to new heights, something that an American band had never done before. A Celebration of Guilt was filled with non stop technicality and headbanging riffs. Throw in some great drumming and amazing vocals and you’ve got one of the best melodic death metal albums of all time. And that was only their first album. Arsis was clearly destined for greatness. The following year the band would release A Diamond for Disease, bringing their technicality to a new level and also featuring their strongest song to date, the now infamous title track. After multiple tours and shows across the country, Arsis has come back with their second full length album. United in Regret doesn’t fall into the trend of bands having “sophomore slump” at all. Instead the band takes their technicality yet to new heights, featuring superb musicianship and even better guitar solos than before. Enter what is the best death metal album to come out this year…

United In Regret by Arsis

Disease is forever yet diamonds fade with the past.
-- “Hopeless Truth”

United in Regret’s first noticeable quality is the production. The band probably was given a larger budget for this album which contributes to even better production quality than before. On their past two releases the guitars would occasionally come out as a giant wall of sound and sound a little unclear in places. On this album, everything is perfectly clear and easy to listen to. It’s an ideal production for the band and all of the mixing is top notch.

The second thing I noticed about this album: it’s technical. Really technical. I thought the band’s guitar parts couldn’t get much more complicated than the multiple tracking on “A Diamond for Disease”, but I was mistaken. James Malone has taken his guitar playing to new heights, constantly blowing the listener away with rapid time signature changes, dissonant guitar sweeps, and blistering solos. If you are an Arsis fan and you checked out their leaked tracks before the album came out, I’m sure you came across “Lust Before the Maggot’s Conquest”. That song is a perfect example of what the guitars have to offer on this album. This song is a great combination of ugly, tritone-based leads, quickly followed by low end chugging riffs which are overlapped with rapid-fire arpeggio sweeps. It’s something that Arsis has been doing for a while now, but it never gets old to listen to. And the best thing of all is that James’ guitar solos have been brought out much more than they have in the past, and they’re a lot better too. In this album every note played in the solos is distinct and articulated greatly, not to mention loaded with incredible skill and precision. James Malone upped the ante on United In Regret and succeeded. All metal guitarists should flock to this album.

Mike Van Dyne’s drumming has always been solid in every song the band plays, and you won’t be hearing anything revolutionary in his drumming, but it’s always great for the band’s sound. I can’t think of a time in the album where there isn’t either some double bass drum beats or blast beats going on, which is what melodic death metal is all about. While following these basic principles, Van Dyne still manages to keep the drumming interesting with plenty of cymbal work and loads of fills inbetween. It’s not the best drumming I’ve ever come across, but it doesn’t need to be. Mike Van Dyne is the perfect drummer for Arsis.

But alas, this album is not without a few flaws. There are certain places where this album can just become too technical. Such examples could be in the introduction to “The Marriage Bed”, where James and Mike blow you away with sweeping interlocked with low end riffing and amazing drum work in at 7/8 time signature. It’s just too much to take in for just about any listener’s ears. Some people might also not like parts in “Lust Before the Maggot’s Conquest” as some of the guitar parts could be deemed as just strange. While I can understand this, it’s still pretty cool to listen to. Also, the album is too short for me. United In Regret only has nine songs, and most of them average under four minutes in length. A 36 minute album just isn’t enough for me and by the end I just felt like there needed to be more. While there was a bad song on the album, I just wish there was a song or two more and then the album would have been that much more enjoyable.

To conclude things, this stands to be the best death metal album of the year. The musicality has been increased even beyond their past two albums which were already jaw-droppingly good. But that was not without a price for being difficult to listen to. Even though the album is a bit short, it’s still a non-stop ride of incredible technicality that anyone should pick up. It’s well worth the price.

The album’s highlights:
The Cold Resistance
Lust Before the Maggot's Conquest
The Marriage Bed

Was it your emptiness that pushed me away or your hatred that drew me near?
-- “The Marriage Bed”

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3.2 good

Rank: #175 for 2006