Archaia

Archaia is pretty great where metalcore goes, essentially fusing metalcore with death metal/thrash. This death metal esque vibe extends throughout the guitar and vocals, with Archaia delivering one of the best "raspy death growls" I've ever heard (essentially higher pitched death growls with a bit of a black metal raspy quality to them). The clean counterpart to these death growls is generally very well done, but a bit whiny at times. (allegedly because of issues in the recording studio). The bass guitar is played with elements that very closely resemble the way that the electric guitar is played, with chainsaw riffs and moments that almost sound like a solo. The drums are the only part of this EP that lacks substantial quality, seemingly using a pattern that repeats once a measure. Transitions from heavy to clean are generally handled well, without butchering the song like My Children My Bride does from time to time. Some might find that the clean vocals make entire songs reminiscent of the crap that the scene kids listen to; those people are wrong, but they are entitled to that opinion.

Archaia's EP was a flawless performance in the metalcore genre aside from the drums, but there are bands out there in this same vein that do the genre better, namely, trivium; the fact that these bands do the genre better however, does not mean that they are the better bands. Point blank, disregarding the genre based aspects of things, Archaia's entry to the metalcore scene is entirely more enjoyable to listen to than the artists who supposedly produce better material when assessed on a genre by genre basis.

9.25/10

http://artists.ultimate-guitar.com/archaia/