Arise and Ruin – The Final Dawn
Victory Records (10/30/07)
Metal
Arise and Ruin likes its metal heavy, in the vein of classic Sepultura or Slayer—only replace the thrash undertones with a more intrinsically hardcore approach, and you basically have The Final Dawn.
This is the band’s debut album, but it’s surprisingly tight. That may be due to the fact that they had recorded most of the album before, but after signing with Victory decided to re-work most of the material into what is presented here.
“Not a lot of people get the chance to make changes to a full-length, and we were able to make those kinds of major changes on our first record,” bassist Ben Alexis points out in the band’s press material.
The result is a brutal, in-your-face, systematic metal attack. Clocking in just over half an hour, there’s little filler on The Final Dawn. Chunky guitar riffs and blistering blast beats weave together with screamed vocals that come across more aggressive than abrasive (a welcome change from the genre’s usual fare).
The best song on the disc, “End of the Road”, spills out of the speakers with a bludgeoning force. But there’s some underlying melodic guitar work throughout the song that gives it this added dimension, propelling it to something much more than a simple metal anthem. This melody really shines toward the end of the song, so much so that it’s hard not to have this one song on repeat.
Of course, that’s hardly necessary. Everything on here is a blunt assault—the simple is short enough to avoid becoming repetitive, and the longer songs have enough layers to keep them interesting time and time again.
Other notable moments include the ferocious guitar work on “Amid Devils”, the epic soloing on “Pale Horse”, the machine-gun assault of “In Life” and the gutteral howls on “Fear Itself” (another killer track).
Arise and Ruin is one of those bands metal fans should be excited about. This is a more than adequate debut offering, so it’ll be interesting to see where the band’s headed. It’s a wide open future for such a young act.
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