Why?: Like so many devouring music in the 90s, I fell in love with Seputura's Roots. Arise isn't much like Roots, but there are hints. I read somewhere that Arise is one of the "must have" metal albums so I bought it when cheap. This is the 1997 remaster.
Tell me more!:
In the last few years my metal ear has moved closer to doom, post-metal and thrash. So despite remembering not thinking much of Arise when I first bought it, I really 6/enjoy it now.
And in doing so, I start to show some big cracks in my analysis of why I don't like some other metal albums by bands like Anthrax. The vocals styles on this album as more toward shouty punk, a style I've claimed to hate. Maybe I don't mind Max's singing so much as it is a bit lower? Maybe it's the added joy of the fantastic riffs and progressive edge this album has?
Whatever it is, this album sounds as relevant today as it must have sounded revolutionary when it arrived, at the same time as Metallica's Black, and grunge. I can't disagree with its place so high on the metal pedestal.
A side note, I was perhaps a bit unfair to Against The Grain in my recent review, suggesting their only influence was Metallica. It's clear they were influenced by the thrash elements of bands like Sepultura, and presumably Slayer too. They didn't do it anywhere near as well...
My only complaint about Arise would be that it does drag a little at the end, but I mostly blame the bonus material for that.
7/10
