The 2016 Arsies: January 12, 2016

January 12, 2016

Today looked like it was gonna be a tough one, with the triumphant return of SikTh the presumptive one to beat today. And it was with that context that The Armed win the coin toss... and immediately set fire to the room.
Everything about their album Untitled is an immaculately executed fuck-you. The lack of a title, the disregard for clear song boundaries, even the refusal to divulge who played what on the record. The sense you get is that none of this is an accident, that this is all premeditated, exactly the kind of thing you could expect from a post-apocalytic generation raised on Dillinger Escape Plan and abandoned cities (which is exactly who The Armed really are).
Of course, that's not to say that SikTh's Opacities isn't good. It's pretty great, actually. After sitting out almost a decade of djent, the subgenre they helped create, the band return with a muscular EP that is everything you'd expect from them: at turns angry and melodic, always just unpredicatble enough to be engaging, and pretty damned metal. But there's also this weird undercurrent of goofy Linkinparkness that pops up troublingly here and there. Also, bringing an EP to today's fight isn't helping anyone. But the biggest mistake is the inclusion of Tokyo Lights. What were you thinking, SikTh?
Tune in tomorrow, to find out if 36 Crazyfists have what it takes to defeat Fit For An Autopsy!