The 2018 Arsies: January 15, 2018

January 15, 2018

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

Bleh!
Today's all-British showdown starts in unsparingly savage form with Dyscarnate's With All Their Might, and it makes me wonder if I should add a new metric to the scorecard: heaviness. This may not be the most technical or virtuosity strain of death metal, but holy hell is it harrowing. If you can listen to this and not grimace and bob your head, I don't want to know you. And the riffs. Just. Keep. On. Coming. Even the slower tracks here manage to inflict damage, even as they keep the pace more interesting.
It's not really Hark's fault for losing today, is the thing. Machinations is an excellent and worthy followup to 2014's much-praised Crystalline. sludgey but catchy, with an intriguing punk aesthetic running through everything. If Motöaut;rhead and Clutch had a baby, it might sound a little like this. Above all, it's fun. And yet, and yet, and yet... Dyscarnate mop the floor with 'em. It's especially disheartening to have to close the door on Hark like this, as the band is now officially defunct. Still, it wasn't even close today, folks.
Tomorrow, we'll see who will next try to stand up to Dyscarnate; will it be Mutoid Man or Persefone?