Can Willowtip Records do no wrong? I just received an envelope, holding two new gems, Arsis' new EP, "A Diamond For Disease", and Watchmaker's "Erased from the Memory of man", both of which blew me away. Arsis' new disc, clocking in at nearly twenty minutes, is a brand new, sparkling, technical melodic masterpiece.The disc starts out with a glittery, cyclic guitar riff fading in, which is...Read More

The word melodic gets thrown around like food when Anna Nicole Smith eats a buffet; a word chucked into death metal to show something other than sheer brutality, but other than a few solos and a lessening or growls, what is melodic death metal? Arsis, that's what. Let me tell you, the 13 minute center piece of this criminally teasing EP was written to accompany the Ballet Deviare is...Read More

Is Arsis the most promising melodic death metal band of the moment? Thats the first question that popped into my mind after hearing the 13-minute title track for the first time. After exploding onto the metal scene with last year's A Celebration of Guilt, A Diamond For Disease ups the ante in every way imaginable and creates an EP that gets the listener's mouth watering for more material. ...Read More

Who'da thunk a couple of guys from Virginia would turn out to be the saviors of Scandinavian melodic death metal? When Arsis--the duo of guitarist-vocalist James Malone and drummer Michael Van Dyne--dropped A Celebration Of Guilt upon an unsuspecting public last year, the acclaim was unanimous. Deity-level precursors such as Arch Enemy, At the Gates, and even Carcass were mentioned in...Read More

In the town of Zelienople, PA (population: 4,123) is a small record label that is quietly pushing the boundaries of modern metal. "Forward thinking metal" is the motto of Willowtip Records, a haven for innovative, uncompromising death metal and grindcore. Despite limited budgets (releases are financed solely by earnings from previous ones), classy packaging and a loyal...Read More

The highly anticipated A Diamond for Disease has finally dropped, and said anticipation springs mainly from the battering ram that was, and is, A Celebration of Guilt. Not only did Arsis garner critical acclaim for their debut, but the masses suddenly jumped on board - without warning - which helped to spread the anxiousness attached to this particular release. Sporting three songs that last...Read More

Arsis is the best metal band of the decade; this millennium, even! There, I said it. Between this three-song special release EP and the new Vader EP, I'm starting to question my policy of excluding EPs from my year-end top ten. For the (hopefully) very few of you out there that are unaware of the existence of Arsis, let me gladly fill you in. They are a two-piece band out of Virginia...Read More

Arsis fucking rules. Simple fact. This EP's main highlight is the massive 13-minute title track, written for the Ballet Deviare in New York City, at which Arsis main man James Malone will perform in January. Recording once more as a two-piece with Malone handling all guitar, bass, and vocal duties, you know from the minute the track opens with distant wails of tapping and melodic swells...Read More

For some bands and labels, EPs are just a way to make a few bucks while a band is between records. In fact, very few bands really seem to take advantage of the possibilities these short-form releases can offer. On Arsis' A Diamond For Disease, the band uses the twenty minutes effectively, creating a focused collection of songs with a series of common threads running through them. All of this...Read More

From the official press release: "While writing for their sophomore album, James Malone was approached by Ballet Deviare about possibly writing a track for their next ballet performance. Ballet Deviare had previously used an Arsis song in one of their performances but were requesting Arsis to write a song specifically for them to perform live with the ballet at their next showing. The song...Read More

Arsis made huge waves with their debut album, "A Celebration Of Guilt" in late 2004. A track from the disc was used in a ballet performed by Ballet Deviare, a dance troupe based in NYC. The group was so inspired by the band's music that they asked songwriter James Malone to compose a track specifically for them to use in their next ballet. The song had to be over ten minutes long as it was...Read More

You may have noticed that we've recently begun teaming up on some of the more noteworthy releases, in an effort to both provide extra discussion of albums of interest and, at times, offer contrasting views. Based on what I know about Tim's views on A Celebration of Guilt, along with the undeniable quality of this EP, I have a feeling my follow up review may be little more than a glorified...Read More

The nice part about a full length is that a band has a lot of room to breathe and explore, expand their sound, build a connection to the listener and in some instances, when they hit a rough patch there is the possibility to smooth things over by the next song. An EP on the other hand, there is no time to waste and fans tend to be unforgiving when they shell out cash for usually not a whole...Read More

Delightfully complex and proggish death metal here. Flesh-raking vocals make their assault across a landscape of lush, bright metal melodies woven with utter intricacy. The band doesn't sound much like anyone I could compare them too except maybe obliquely to the extreme yet melodious sound of early Extol. The instrumentals here are the ultimate in progressive metal and while they could just...Read More

Carcass is dead, its more pop(n)ular successor Arch Enemy is trite metalcore rehash, and America took long enough to discover late-era Carcass. But when it finally did as it would have sooner or later, since quality niche subgenres are bound to be re-discovered with increased availability of historical metal information, Mike Amott's influence on their groundbreaking transformation from...Read More

Arsis proved with their debut full length "A Celebration Of Guilt" that they are hands down the best melodic death metal band around today. They simply have a knack for songwriting that most of their peers can't match up with, not to mention some of the best guitarwork in the genre, past or present. "A Diamond For Disease" is an EP featuring the title track, Arsis's 13 minute opus as well as...Read More

Arsis came out of nowhere last year on the small upstart Willowtip Records label with their debut, A Celebration Of Guilt. The idea of melodic Swedish style death metal, at that point, turned my stomach thanks to all the Unearths and As I Lay Dyings we've been drowned in over the past couple of years. But Arsis changed all that and made me excited to hear this style of music being played...Read More

Hardworking tech/death metal wizards Arsis decided to release a between-album mini. A Diamond For Disease is a three song EP including two original head bangers and one Alice Cooper cover. Although there are only three tracks on this cd, it still takes up twenty minutes of your time; twenty minutes that you will want to keep replaying over and over again. The main reason you'll be wanting to...Read More

Arsis now has a mere two releases under their collective belt, but I'm not hesitant to call them one of the few best bands currently playing melodic death metal. Hell, in my mind, Arsis is the best. A Diamond For Disease is their latest effort and, although it's a criminally short set of three songs (at 20 minutes), the material is so intricately woven, precisely played, and unmatched...Read More