The 2019 Arsies: January 28, 2019

January 28, 2019

Emotion	○○○	●●●
Memorability	○○○	●●●
Replayability	○○○	●●●
Innovation	○○○	●●●
Pace	○○○	●●○
Shredding	○○○	●●○
Vocals	○○○	●●●
Production	○○○	●●○
		✓

Welcome back, maniacs, to the last match of the First Round!
Unearth win the cointoss, and their Extinction(s) does not fail to deliver the goods. As usual with this band, expect the unexpected: metalcore has always ever been a starting point for this band, and on this album their explorations are even more wide ranging and successful. Undergirding it all is just solid, tasty riffage.
This brings us to Textures' Dualism. Long time readers of the Arsies may recall that Yours Truly was head-over-heels for this album back in 2012, and it made it as far as the Quarterfinals. Honestly, I'd fully expected that it wouldn't age well, but I'm here to tell you that the magic is still there. The pacing of the album is seductive, starting with their hardest tracks only to draw you in to the album's more layered middle third. Dualism loses steam in the final third, but by then Extinction(s) is a distant memory. Congrats to Textures, who once again make it out of the starting gate. They'll be back in two weeks, against Decapitated. Woof.
That's it for the First Round! Tomorrow, we kick off the Round Of 16 with Between The Buried And Me vs Beyond Creation.