“SINCE THE SHADOWS” COME ARSIS

(I have no idea what the current lineup of Arsis looks like, so here’s a picture of Jim Malone)

Arsis are nothing if not consistent; since 2004’s debut A Celebration of Guilt they’ve released an album once every two years, dotted by the occasional EP. But if the new demo for “Since the Shadows” posted on their Facebook page is any indication, they may actually beat their self-prescribed schedule. Here’s the message the band posted along with the track:

We are indeed writing a new ARSIS album and we want to offer everybody a glimpse into the music that we’ve been building for the last few months. This is a demo of a new one called ‘Since the Shadows’ and it’s from the first batch of songs for the album. It’s still early but a musical direction has emerged from the work so far and we think it speaks for itself without any grand pronouncements, so enjoy it and we will see you on the FIREWIND tour this fall!

Songs like “Since the Shadows” give us good reason to be optimistic. It’s instantly recognizable as Arsis; there’s something about the chord voicings and guitar melodies Jim Malone writes that are instantly recognizable and un-mistakingly distinguishable as being Arsis. This song has tons of Arsis-ness, if you will. There’s a word for that, ____-ness in the general sense, the qualities that make any individual thing unique… but I can’t for the life of me remember it. Any English majors out there?

-VN