There are bands you can spot as veterans just from how locked-in they sound, and Arroganz play like a group deep into a long hot streak. Which is exactly why it threw me to find out Death Doom Punks is their seventh full-length. I'd never heard a note from these Germans before this one (that's on me, not them), and my first assumption was that I'd wandered into a band cruising comfortably through its prime. Then I went back and did my homework on the catalog, and it turns out this isn't a group coasting on a formula they nailed three records ago. This is a leap.
The quickest way I can describe them is a slightly more technical Cannibal Corpse, except the riffs are more interesting than most of what the genre bothers to serve up. Gut-level old-school death metal, low corpse-grinder bark, no fat on it. And the thing that jumps out immediately, then keeps jumping out for the whole runtime, is the bass. You do not usually hear bass this prominent and this active on a death metal record, and when you do it's normally that farty fretless prog tone. This is just gnarly, snaking, straight-up bass, right up in the mix where you can actually follow it. Which figures, since the frontman is the bass player. The production is strong and clear too; every instrument sits exactly where it should.
The first four songs are the best uninterrupted stretch here. 'Die for Nothing' is the most straightforward of the bunch, a banger that eases you in. 'Under Scarred Skin' opens on a badass, gnarly bass lick before the guitars come in and smash you in the face, and it's the moment you realize these guys are bringing more to the table than a Cannibal Corpse tribute act. But 'Pain Forged Armor' is the one. It comes straight out of the gate punching, stacks a handful of really nice riffs into the intro, then pulls a move going into the chorus where the riffs pummel you, cut to silence for a beat, and come crashing back in. And the payoff: a subtle little digga-digga right after the words "pain forged armor." Tiny thing. It's also the single most memorable moment on the album, the hook that shoves a great death metal song up to a 10. 'Death Doom Punks' closes the run, and whatever the title is supposed to mean (these guys are not death doom, and they're not doom punk either, so your guess is as good as mine), the chorus is a plain, dumb, wonderful earworm that trails you around for the rest of the day.
After a salvo like that you brace for the front-loaded letdown. It doesn't really come. The back half (Anti-Ideology, Arsenic Breath, Incubus' Veins, Earth's Final Dose, Spirit Arsonist) is less immediate and less hooky, but it's good in different ways, and it's the part that keeps paying off on repeat listens. 'Anti-Ideology' drills you with the most technical riffing yet without ever tipping into nerdy. 'Arsenic Breath' slips a dark, almost sexy groove into the verses that you'd never expect from a band this brutal, with the bass carrying the bridge. 'Incubus' Veins' is the odd one out, thrashier and stranger than anything around it, and it brings in a guest vocalist for a harsh turn near the end (the closing "I hate God" skirts edgelord eye-roll, but it works).
Then the closer, 'Spirit Arsonist,' is the most technical and unpredictable thing on here, all tempo shifts and little tweaks to riffs you thought you had figured out. It's the closest the record gets to Voivodian, and the impressive part is that it goes properly technical, maybe even a touch progressive, without ever noodling for its own sake or losing the songs. Most tech-death buries the tunes under the chops. These guys sit right in the pocket where an old-school death metal album is quietly doing things you didn't see coming.
The whole record is bookended by a whispered "a blade to kill all gods," opening and closing the album. I wasn't sold on it at first (it flirts with unintentionally cheesy), but bringing it back at the very end loops the thing shut in a way I've come around on. Full circle. For a band I somehow missed across six previous albums, this is a hell of a place to finally catch up, and a better one than they've ever been.
Old-school death metal with the riffs and the songs to back up the technicality, and a bass tone worth the price of admission on its own. If you play bass and you love death metal, do not miss it. Check out 'Pain Forged Armor,' 'Under Scarred Skin,' and 'Earth's Final Dose.'
Arroganz turn old-school death metal into something sharper and more memorable than the style usually allows, with riffs that stick and a gnarly bass tone shoved right up front.
