OK I admit it I do like some metalcore and deathcore and have followed the scene loosely for a few years now, though I’d never consider myself as an expert. Sure the bands are vibrant and energetic live and sure most consider the music is just there for young lads and their girlfriends to jump around to. The question is I guess, does it really have a place in metal at all or is it just fortified pop shite with guitars.
Most bands in this scene, like any scene, have a basic template around which they structure their music. However the crux comes when a band just sticks to that template instead of veering away from it for fear of being accused a sell out or whatever. This is why metalcore is destined to fail in the long term because virtually all the bands fail to see beyond this template creating that all too familiar sound and wall of death predictability. Arranged Chaos has every discernible facet of metalcore executed with perfection but with little imagination.
Listening to this on a Saturday night didn’t do it any favours either as even some German beer, their homeland, didn’t help. The piano intro (don’t bands check out what has been done before) is boring before “Depending On A Change” comes through with alternating screamed and cupped guttural growls. The foreseeable breakdowns appear quicker than I anticipated and are used at every available opportunity. It’s as though the band is frightened not to use them in their songs for fear of the young reprobates in the pit becoming bored. It’s more of the same on the title track with widdly harmonised leads and the occasional clean vocal wail added for the girls, ah bless.
“Denying Anger” offers some experimentation, great something different, the band halts it. “Do you hear that, Arranged Chaos, that is the sound of inevitability” to coin a phrase. The pig squeal vocal on “Rigor Mortis” is ridiculous and sounds like the wild boar sequence from the film “Hannibal”. Fair enough the band is damn fast in places and can play their instruments well within these parameters but in all honesty most of these bands need to meet real metal musicians and learn exactly how its all played and not bring their birds to just tag along for status value. I’ve still to hear or see a metalcore band to match Misery Signals in this genre and based on this Arranged Chaos still has a lot to do though I suspect their fans won’t give a shit anyway.
http://www.myspace.com/arrangedchaos
