The 2018 Arsies: February 7, 2018

February 7, 2018

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

Oh, Bison, you beautiful sludgey bastards. You Are Not The Ocean... is everything I want from you: thunderous, snarl-inspiring, but catchy and joyous at the same time. It's dirty, but a good kind of dirty. If I have to nitpick (and, this late in the tournament, of course I have to), the vocals are stubbornly not great, and the album could do with a little more variety. Both of these are critiques I could also level at The Haunted's Strength In Numbers, but not to the same extent. More crucially, The Haunted are in top form here, shredding like men possessed, laying down epic riff after epic riff. The distinction is even more pronounced when you listen to both albums back to back: Strength In Numbers comes across like a maelstrom, lifting The Haunted into the final Quarterfinals berth.
Boom! We're into the final stretch. Tomorrow, we start the Semis in nailbiting fashion: Ayreon versus Glassjaw! It'll end in tears.