Blackened thrash that strums the right chords but misses the sound
Norwegian act Arvas delivers some blackened thrash on their fourth album 'Black Path' that has its ups and downs for sure. Musically, the album hits all the right chords--the atmosphere is pretty dark and foreboding with the black metal influence and the thrash gives it some added catchiness. The vocals on the album are classic black metal rasps with a few death growls mixed in here and there. The production though really hurts this one for me as the vocal mix is so uneven that it sounds like a whisper one minute and a shrill scream the next. Worth a listen but hard to get through with the production issues.