Starve for the Devil

Arsis | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 9, 2010)
• Original Release Date: 2010
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nuclear Blast Americ
• ASIN: B002ZCD92C
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #190,494 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Forced To Rock - Arsis

2. A March For The Sick - Arsis

3. From Soulless To Shattered (Art In Dying) - Arsis

4. Beyond Forlorn - Arsis

5. The Ten Of Swords - Arsis

6. Closer To Cold - Arsis

7. Sick Perfection - Arsis

8. Half Past Corpse O'Clock - Arsis

9. Escape Artist - Arsis

10. Sable Rising - Arsis

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Death/Powermetal from Arsis, February 9, 2010

By 

avgvstvs "Matt Seil" (Omaha NE) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Starve for the Devil (Audio CD)

The first track resurrects some absolutely brilliant 80's moments with a fantastically hilarious "In the name of Satan, we are FORCED TO ROCK!" And the energy that cannot be described as anything other than frenetic continues for ten more punishing tracks.

In terms of production quality, this album is leap years ahead of "We are the nightmare," with the ultra-thin drum machine sounding kit tossed out for something much more appropriate and aggressive. The most surprising thing is that in many places I can actually hear the bass guitar playing--and its gorgeous!

While I absolutely love every last note, while I love how ruthlessly this band plays... every successive release from Arsis has been moving a more and more powermetal direction (sans vocals) that while technically brilliant... does not translate to any real raw emotion. I will be so direct as to say that they traded "evil" for melody.

Sometimes they unite: "Beyond Forlorn" has a progressive breakdown for about 4 bars that is surprising and brilliant. And the occult-themed "The Ten of Swords" is downright Slayer-like in its ability to trash without a conscience--and the breakdown here reminds me of some of the work from DT's "The Gallery."

While I'm still not 100% in love with the new direction from Arsis, one thing that I cannot say is that they aren't being original. No other band sounds like this, and though their first two albums were pure "At the Gates" worship (and I miss that) the last two releases have really seen the band become something completely of their own making. You can't compare them to ATG anymore, the styles are completely different--and ATG never lost the "from hell" feel that I feel Arsis has done of late.

Though I really don't want to give this album 5 stars, I realize that the differences I have are due to style and not to substance: This album is unique, manages to continuously innovate, and though not by any means as dark as the first two albums--blends all the best elements of their early work with the brilliant shredding of "We Are the Nightmare." If you skipped or were disappointed by the last album, don't do it this time, you will be missing out--and the polish is back!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Melodic death metal, my Arsis!, March 24, 2010

By 

misha2707 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Starve for the Devil (Audio CD)

At the store, the album cover had a sticker billing this as melodic death metal. I disagree with that notion. Although this band does infuse some melody into the blistering guitar work, I feel this music is more in the realm of technical death metal and/or thrash death.

I'm not saying this is a bad or disappointing album. Quite the contrary. Arsis manages to deliver a truly Americanized sense of whatever style of death metal they choose to play, and do it well. The drum work is much more intense than your typical melodic death metal band and the guitars are epic and extremely thrashy.

I'm going to commit the cardinal sin here and compare these guys to Arch Enemy and The Absence. Musically, these three bands sound very similar. Both AE and The Absence are more melodically involved, but still thrashy. Both have better vocalists.

That is my only beef with this album, and it is a major one. Would it kill this guy to belt out more varied tones other than his continuous raspy drawl? I must admit that I like bands with deeper, more crushing vocals. Remove the vocals from Starve for the Devil and this is a solid 5-star release even if it is purely instrumental. I know this vocal style is part of what makes Arsis, but I'm not reviewing this album as Arsis albums go, but as death metal albums go. For the monotonous rasp, I have to dock this thing almost a full point. Starve for the Devil corrals 4.0/5 stars.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Starve for the METAL!!\m/, February 10, 2010

By 

L. Bazan "woisdbfi3iwiuw" (Brownsville, Tx USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Starve for the Devil (Audio CD)

Alot of people have compared Arsis to bands like At the Gates and In Flames being as they were a powerhouse of melodic death to be reckoned with forming a style similar to the Gothenberg sound of the early 90's.Starve for the Devil shatters any preconception you might have of them and is more remniscent of an Iron Maiden meets Slayer type feel to it with a sound all their own.Crushing anthemic tracks such as "Forced to Rock" sound more like Children of Bodom on steroids without the annoying synth. Very 80's power metal grooves on tracks like "Ten of Swords" and "Beyond Forlorn" as if Iced Earth and Cannibal Corpse were merged into one super group and bashed with a shovel of brutality.If you could compare this to one of their earlier albums you would have a hard time doing so as this is nothing like what they have done before.Progression seems to be the demise of most metal bands as their fans want to hear one album over and over again.This isn't the case with Arsis seeing them evolve from melodic death to power/thrash metal over the course of six years has made me earn such respect and fervor for a genre that is overcrowded with metalcore b.s. and wanna be deathcore.My favorite album since United in Regret hell yeah.