Arms Of Ra "Unnamed" EP

After a well received EP back in 2010, the french post-core band Arms Of Ra are back, this time with a conceptual EP simply called "Unnamed". You probably have already seen this cover a hundred times and all over the blogs out there, since this came as a request from the label and from a band member itself i could not say "No!". Swarm Of Nails Records holds a dozen great bands and releases in their cartel and Arms Of Ra are no exception. I really liked the 2010's EP and this "Unnamed" EP caught me a little by surprise. I was told that this whole EP runs around the concept of a man who tries to deconstruct himself in order to disappear from society, and based on such strong concept i was really expecting more, but the band is still young and i know that, with time, they will grow better and better. At a first impression i can see that the band has finally found their own characteristic sound. This post-hardcore rubbing into sludge, a more cohesive and muscled sound in the bass, guitars and drum while the voice seems to get his own particular pitch into the hardcore/screamo fields going, from time to time, to a more low tone. I would like to have seen the band taking this great concept a little bit further, because at a first listening, and not knowing the whole concept behind it, i could never tell it is eventually conceptual. If i could catch some tracks and from there build a concept i guess i would choose the tracks: "Afterwards", "Unnamed" and "To be acknowledged is to exist". Maybe if the band had spent some time building some interludes like "Unnamed" between the tracks, it would reinforced the idea of a concept in the album. Besides that, it's a cohesive album, not memorable but.. in general, a good one. Away from the sound production, the whole environment in which this album revolves, is monochromatic, almost like a short film, shot in black and white whose main character is a man, a John Doe, that evaporates from society, right in the middle of a crowd. Check out this and other great releases from the guys at Swarm of Nails here and here. Follow the bands steps here.

Note: i fucked up by stating that the band belonged in Throatruiner Records, that is not true, they belong in the Swarm Of Nails cartel. My apologies to the band and to whom it may concern.

listen | John Doe