ARTAS - Riotology
Shortly after winning the Metalchamp newcomer contest, Vienna based metal band Artas signed a deal with Napalm Records, which was soon followed by their ear opening debut The Healing. Artas quickly disproved that they are more than just a one-hit wonder with the successor Riotology that shows a considerably matured band.
Artas still play modern metal, which actually means that they don’t set limits to what they are allowed to do. Death metal, thrash metal, metalcore and power metal are combined in an anything but arbitrary way, resulting in a suspenseful final product. The band also does their best in the songwriting department to sound as varied as possible, which most of the time works for them. At times there are ultra-brutal parts where one can only be surprised at the insane velocity of the music. But Artas also like their groovy parts that remind partly of Sepultura. Their dark and melancholic side is also not neglected and can best be heard on the excellent Between Poets And Murderers. Those who like a certain hardcore influence in their metal will be delighted by the often furious and stomping rhythms. Vocalist Obi does a good job on the microphone and can scream, growl and sometimes even sing clearly so that you can understand the lyrics even without a text sheet. He seems to be quite the language wiz as next to English, there are parts sung in Spanish, French and German.
The only blame that’s left is that sometimes less is more. Artas certainly have a lot of good ideas, but not yet enough to fill the sixty-seven minutes of the album. A quarter hour less would have left the album with a stronger sense of dynamics.
Despite this little flaw, there is definitely more good than bad to be found here. Fans of extreme metal which is unafraid of experimenting around will find much to admire on Riotology. Artas have already achieved quite a lot, and definitely deserve to be monitored for future activities.