Arma Gathas – Dead To This World (2010)

After all the countless Trash Metal releases we have reviewed in 2010, we finally get a break with a band that incorporates other elements to this genre, and makes it sound very different and fresh. Arma Gathas hails from Switzerland and their combination of Trash, Groove and some Hardcore elements makes them sound both powerful and fresh.

If we had to guess where this band is from without doing research, we would have guess that they came from France, since Arma Gathas sounds like a Trashier version of Hacride, Gojira, etc. The riffing in “Dead To This World” is very Trash Metal oriented but with more aggressive vocals and different rhythms thrown into the mix.

All the music in “Dead To This World” is very well crafted to sound very heavy, with the harsh vocals providing a powerful and very consistent performance. The sporadic use of synths is very well mixed in between the songs and provides a nice refreshing element here and there to help the music never get monotonous, we particularly love the song “New Saviour” and it’s epic ending.

In general the band is pretty good at creating riff-driven melodies that never get boring or dull. Every single song has its own elements to make it different from the rest, and we totally dig that, we are tired of albums that all sound the same. The album’s production is top notch having all instruments very well balanced in the final mix.

One a funny note, the song “Our Final Breath – Our Last Goodbye” completely reminded us of “I am Broken” from Pantera, since it starts in a very similar way. The way this songs end, is kind of different from anything else in this album, but it provides a very ‘calming’ end to this interesting album.

With 13 tracks clocking 36 minutes, the band does a great job at getting people’s attention with “Dead To This World” the band’s first full-length album. We surely expect bigger and better things from this band in the next years, so keep an eye for them.

Release: April 23rd, 2010

Country: Switzerland