Speed is something that plays a much bigger part in metal than what many may realize, and it’s more likely than not that we see it approached from its two extremes: incredibly fast or immensely slow. It’s not often enough that we see the middle road taken with it able to bring great benefit to much of what death metal has become in its modern form, yet very few still perform it with not all being able to pull it off. In every form, though, Arhat easily conquered that very same concept.

I would normally expect a band like this to have a virtually singular sound that doesn’t have much variety from one track to the next since that really does feel like what the vast majority of other bands in this vein seem to do, but it’s right out of the gate that we can see that Arhat does their best to rise above such competition with admirable results. The sound of “Dead Life” is greatly centered around death metal with a heavy groove aspect, but it’s in none of these tracks that stagnation occurs even once as it’s throughout the entirety of the album that we see Arhat do their best to create an album that’s as gripping as it is intense and it should go without saying that they definitely achieved that goal. Absolutely overflowing with hooks that immediately sink their way into your brain as their immensely flavorful aggression shows its hand very quickly to give us an experience that is a true work of high-octane excitement with every corner of “Dead Life” being precisely what many of us are constantly looking for in order spice up our lives. This is the kind of death metal that gets you pumped up right away without hesitation with every aspect of Arhat coming into play gloriously to show us throughout all nine of these tracks, including the intro, that this act out of fucking nowhere is already nothing to fuck with as their brand of heaviness is no less than infectious right off the bat, and if there’s anything to take away from “Dead Life”, it’s the simple fact that Arhat’s excellence is nothing to be underestimated, for its power will truly shock you if you don’t give it the credit that it deserves.

There’s so much spice to find within the confines of what Arhat has put together on their first full-length album that brings a mid-tempo glory back to death metal that we don’t get often enough, and it’s damn near impossible for me to sit here and suggest anything other than the fact that the band has found nothing but absolute success on this effort. Everything about “Dead Life” is so much of what I know many people out there are constantly craving for at all times with each song here providing that very goodness that can never be in oversupply.

LISTEN to “Dead Life” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Arhat on Facebook here.