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I'd also say that some of the stuff on here is more like Necrophagist. They really have gone more technical on this one, however the melody is still there (like Ben said, some are kind of powermetalish). Overall I'm giving this one a 90/100. My number one of the year.

good album... it's got a lot of happy sounding stuff (someone who knows music speak said it has lots of "major key" melodies), while United in Regret was more clashing, ugly and depressed (but just as good, not sure why people were let down by that other than because it followed A Diamond for Disease). agreed about the drums not being so great. Mike had such great sound and used his playing to really complement the riffs and hold the songs together. Darren has that triggered sound and his playing is all over the place. sure he's technical but that's not always a good thing. 75/100 imo

Really liking this one. The "main" riff (I guess) from Servants to the Night is awesome. I missed their second cd, so this was a bit of a departure for me, but it's a solid one.

+1 Definately there are some parts in the album that sounds like Necrophagist.

I heard Necrophagist. In Faffel speak that translates to "listen."

Update: Unimpressed. Feels like Necrophagist for In Flames fans. Meh.

Wow how many listens did that take?

New Decrepit Birth is still number one, but this one is second album of the year. I fucking love Arsis.
I agree with Jeff about the drum part though.

i love the guitar harmony at 1:35ish during that song. it reminds me of something early At The Gates or Eucharist would do.

also the guitar part during the verse of Shattering the Spell makes me feel like i'm in a medieval court... or at least it would if it were played on a harpsichord

I gave it a full listen, it just didn't sound very interesting. Especially compared to the slew of other good death metal releases in the past few months. I don't really have time to spend on generic/average metal with such a huge catalogue of shit to check out. Then again, I also can't stand traditional melodeath which is a big contributing factor to my opinion on this band. Just didn't catch my ear at all.

I also agree about the drum sound. It overpowers the other instruments at time and the drums don't sound very nice at all. That said, My Oath to Madness is a pretty decent song.

Well if you consider this "traditional melodeath" you are mistaken.

I take back what I said. Now that I've loosed some energy after 8 hours of work, am no longer starving and out of things worth interesting to do, I'm not quite as grumpy as before, and the album is catching me a little more. I noticed some of the cool rythyms on top of the In Flames-y style melodies and Necrophagist-esque scales and licks. A nice mish-mash of different styles of melo/techdeath that will probably stick around my library. Not the best thing ever, but pretty good.

Listen to their first album, A Celebration of Guilt. By far their best, then check out their EP A Diamond for Disease.

I just realized the new album sounds almost exactly like Quo Vadis with a bit more technicality to their playing. That's why it felt so familiar. They're a pretty decent band, though.

It's fighting really hard to overtake A Celebration of Guilt in my book.

An awesome album, solid review as well. I think I would have given it a few more points though myself.

awesome album!

90/100