The 2016 Arsies: January 28, 2016

Jump to February 16 February 12 February 11 February 10 February 9 February 8 February 5 February 4 February 3 February 2 February 1 January 29 January 28 January 27 January 26 January 25 January 22 January 21 January 20 January 19 January 18 January 15 January 14 January 13 January 12 January 11 January 8 January 7 January 6 January 5 January 4 Prelude RSS

Save This Bracket

January 28, 2016

Listen to today's competitors on Spotify

Let's call today "Sumac's Revenge." All the things that gave Irreversible Mechanism the edge over the Aaron Turner project during the first round have come back to haunt the Belarusians in Round 2. This time around, compared to Byzantine, it's IM that wield the heavier sound, and it's IM who feel under-edited and tripped up by self-indulgence and pacing issues. And I swear to god, every time I listen to Infinite Fields, it's like they the arpeggios are multiplying in my sleep. On the other hand, Byzantine's thrashy listenability is immediate and refreshing, progressive without feeling like homework, virtuosic without coming across as wanky. And once again, apparent album length is telling; To Release Is To Resolve feels shorter than Infinite Fields, but is actually four minutes longer. Think that means something?
Tomorrow, we end the week with two very strong bands: The Armed and Fit For An Autopsy. I have no idea what's going to happen!

comments powered by Disqus

Hear samples and more on Amazon MP3

This work by Metalligentsia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.