Arise – The Reckoning (2010)

Surrounded by very confusing information, I found stuff back from April 2009 indicating the release of this album. The album was also recorded back in 2007, according to the band’s website. We have “The Reckoning” an interesting but kind of flat release that mixes Trash and Death Metal.

The band claims to have influences of Carcass, At The Gates and Hypocrisy. While this is somewhat true, they are missing the heart behind these legendary bands. Arise plays decent music and creates decent songs, but nothing more exciting than this.

You do get some inspired melodic moments in this release, but they all get boggled down by the uninspired riffing behind the album. All songs seem very formulaic and not impressive. However, if you are a sucker for Melodic Death/Trash Metal, you might find some value in this release. But if you are expecting something original, you are listening to the wrong album.

The vocal tracking is somewhat decent and that alongside the sparsely original melodic passages of the music, are the two best things “The Reckoning” has. The drumming seems to be playing catch-up with the music and never sounds like it’s on command. Featuring tons of un-inspired fills, the drum track gets very dull after a few songs.

While this album can’t be called a complete disaster, it can be used as an example of how you can waste good studio time, a few (not many) decent musical ideas and just create an album that will surely please people that like mass produced music. Staying away from originality might have been one of the key ideas behind this album.

If you are into music that sounds a bit hollow, but it’s decently executed and well produced, then you will enjoy “The Reckoning”. If you want originality look somewhere else. By the way, there are guest appearances by Jonas Kjellgren, Mikael Stanne and Jake Fredém. The band showed some promise before, and hopefully they get back on track with a considerably improved next release.

Release: March 22nd, 2010

Country: Sweden