Formed in 2005, Arise And Ruin from Canada now have released their debut album. Signed by Victory Records and helped by Ken Susi (Unearth) the expectations were high. I myself had heard a couple of songs on their myspace before I received the whole album and I like what I heard, so I was very curious about their full-length. In advance, I will give you this quote in which the band describes their own sound: “Expect nothing short of an album comparable to having Arnold Schwarzenegger changing the oil in your Sherman tank while Van Damme does your laundry and Stallone takes you're 200 pound rottweiler for a walk through The Temple of Doom, that's right, it's going to be heavy as all hell!”

If this is heavy as all hell Schwarzenegger, Van Damme and Stallone should retire right away… Okay, it isn’t that bad, but the description is a bit over the top if you ask me. The sound is very good and occasionally they have some crushing riffs, but all in all they just sound the same as their predecessors. If you listen to songs like ‘To The Grind’ and the title track you’ll instantly hear the Unearth influences. 

Besides the comparison with Unearth the album also begins to bore you after a couple of songs. Each track is practically the same; there are now real highlights on this record. After 5 or 6 songs the breakdowns are becoming predictable and it isn’t challenging enough. With a bit more variation in the songs and without Ken Susi as producer – not because he did a bad job, but because I think he is too influential for these guys – I think they can become much bigger in this scene.