Artist: -AR-
Title: Self Titled
Type: Demo
Label: Self Released

ARRRRRR! What on earth kind of band name is AR? Could it be another band wanting to follow in the footsteps of Alestorm (ar matey), or perhaps was named following an unpleasant visit to the doctors surgery having had a wooden stick pressed against the tongue to check for tonsil inflammation (open wide and say arrrr). It’s not that having a good name is everything, but such seemingly superficial things are often a reasonable indicator of what you can expect from the music (How effective would a name like JLS be for a death metal band I wonder?) I don’t know, perhaps I am missing something here, but it seems as though these Cambridge dudes opened up the Cambridge dictionary, got half way through the A’s and just thought ‘ah fuck it, let’s get drunk instead.’ But enough ranting, let’s get on to the music.

This is what I would call straight-up, no frills metal. There is nothing about it that you won’t have heard before times a thousand, but it is fairly well played and competent stuff. The drums and bass lay down a heavy foundation, and the riffs are the sort you can imagine would attract quite a lot of action in the mosh pit. The vocalist unashamedly demonstrates some serious Hetfield worship and at times I’m very much reminded of a latter day Metallica style in the songwriting department…in fact, this is not really any worse than the stuff you can hear on Death Magnetic. The difference really between Metallica and AR is that the former have quite honestly had their day and the best thing they could do is stop putting out records so they can at least be remembered for some of the great music they have contributed to the metal and rock-o-sphere in the past. The latter, on the other hand, are just starting out. These tunes may not be anything extraordinary, but the key ingredients are at least there and there is plenty of room for them to grow if they put the work in. This is, at the end of the day, only a 2 track demo and it’s refreshing to see a band trying not to run before it can walk, unlike certain others reviewed this month who pour tons of money into making fancy elaborate packaging for a full length album that is, frankly, utter toss. These boys seem to have the right attitude and enough skill to go far…but please get a better name!

http://WWW.MySpace.com/arworld