Despite their humble beginning as a joke in
a friend’s garage, Santa Cruz’s most degenerate
six-piece, ARSONISTS GET ALL THE GIRLS, have quickly developed
into a juggernaut ready to annihilate anything in their path,
and their Century Media debut, The Game of Life,
finds the band at its birdbrained best. Produced by Zach
Ohren of Castle Ultimate (Animosity, Light This City), the
sophomore effort offers 12 uniquely dense, hard-hitting songs
with titles like “Mantipede" and “Taiwanese
Troft Trouble."
The name was penned and the songs were written, but it wasn’t
until they opened up for The Taste of Blood on their EP CD
release show that the world got its first glimpse of the
band’s keyboard-driven insanity. Of course, the songs
were, admittedly, less than stellar (i.e. $h!t), but this
didn’t prevent the band from treating audiences in
California, Arizona, Oregon, Washington and Nevada to their
antics, all of 2 months in the making . Impressed by the
band’s total lack of professionalism, as evidenced
by their being stranded in Colorado on their first winter
tour, Process Records blindly funded the band’s first
full-length, Hits From the Bow. To the surprise
of both the label and ARSONISTS GET ALL THE GIRLS, the album
sold more than a handful of copies. Feeling the intense pressure
brought on by the expansion of their audience beyond friends
and family, the band filled a second guitar spot with final
member Nick to bolster their live sound for 2 full U.S. tours.
Soon after, Century Media bought the band and their balls
for an undisclosed sum.
Drawing from influences as varied as Despised Icon, Cryptopsy,
Dream Theater and Between the Buried and Me, ARSONISTS GET
ALL THE GIRLS offer a smorgasbord of sound sure to satisfy
the musical munchies of those looking for something different.
At the very least, The Game of Life offers its own
take on what happens when a gay train derails on its way
to straight town (we don’t know what that means, either…but
we like it). |
