The Arkham White, Relic Radiation

The Arkham White: Relic Radiation

Hailing from Boston, MA, The Arkham White certainly know how to create a little noise. The tracks on their debut EP, Relic Radiation must have been held up to an old, leaking barrel of latent plutonium for some length of time — the aural fracas that is found on this disc is dense, layered and pummeling.

Working with a base built upon influences ranging from At The Gates to Killswitch Engage, this quintet deliver the goods with a mixture of melodic death metal, grind and noise. Tempos start and stop like the blows from a sledgehammer while distorted guitars churn and drive you further into the disc’s depths. There’s some decent texturing thrown into the caldron that makes everything seem that much more chaotic and dark.

Relic Radiation
Easily the best track on the disc, “Relic Radiation” starts off starts with furious riffing and heavy drum work. The vocals are distant and raw, almost touching on a black metal influence. This is a bruising song with plenty of variety coming at you from every angle whether it’s melodic death metal riffing, grinding drums or the vehemence laced screams. I love the chaotic and brutal feel to everything going on just after the two minute mark. It’s violent, dark and aggressive.

At a Geometric Rate
While the rest of the album doesn’t quite match the ferocity found in the album’s opener they’re still damned fine songs. “At a Geometric Rate” embraces more of the melodic death metal that the band has been influenced by. Its dark and bludgeoning, but still has some melody weaving around in the background.

I Looked Into the Atom Smasher
This song certainly feels like molecules are colliding at a rapidly increasing pace. It’s thick and layered with plenty of texture and noise. The rhythms are beefy and violent, yet don’t smother the rest of the instruments. I’m digging the distance that’s been applied to the vocals — they aren’t completely lost, but let the bruising nature of the song come to the forefront. Hell, even the breakdown toward the end of the song is fitting as massive drums continue to bruise and batter.

Offense Mechanism
“Offense Mechanism” starts off with a few screams and quickly settles into a galloping, melodic death metal groove. There’s an explosion of drumming at :25 that’s got a grind feel to it and complements the more melodic elements nicely. The vocals seem to have more texture added to them at times throughout this song, yet more range is utilized effectively with deep gutturals and higher end screams. The lead after the three minute mark is pretty solid and accompanied by heavy drum work.

At the Mountains of Madness
The EP’s final track is an instrumental that showcases much of what has already been heard on the disc — varied tempo shifts, manic drum blasts, sweeping melodic guitars and beefy riffs.

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I really liked the textures and distortion that was layered throughout this disc. The Arkham White‘s delivery was ferocious and aggressive with just the right amount of melodic death elements. I can’t wait to hear more from these guys.

Favorite Tracks:
All of them

Additional Notes:
N/A