Arbitrage
The Healing Power of Death
Reviewed by Eric Shirey
Arbitrage is a one man industrial metal outfit from Seattle, Washington. That one man is Ross Assink. And what a very imaginative man he is. Some of you may have heard his first release, Music For The Sacrifice. It was offered through and reviewed by Heaven's Metal a while back. That was a pretty low quality recording. This new album, titled The Healing Power of Death, is a lot better quality. Boy, let me tell ya, the guy can write heavy riffs! You can tell he digs the heavier industrial approaches of Skrew, Brainchild, Ministry and Godflesh.
Full-on heavy industrial metal is what we've got here. The sounds he uses are very interesting too. I could swear, at one point, he is using a vacuum cleaner sound. The keyboard programming is a little ancient sounding; but hey, you use what you have at your disposal! The samples are pretty clear and overtly Christian.
Altogether, Arbitrage definitely has the potential to be a very good band. The record is worth a listen to. It's some nice heavy stuff. Also, he is in the middle of negotiating with industrial label Rotate Sound Productions for a full-length studio release. That should be definitely worth a listen.
Other coverage for this album
Heaven's Metal #39Reviewed by Chanel BleauxWhat an ambitious effort by one guy! This tape is definitely one full of surprises! The first song, "Failure," starts the tape off with an industrial feel and, throughout the tape's progression, the style changes to a heavy metal/death metal feel. "Failure" has a good concept, but it falls a bit short of its potential. Most industrial-type songs are based on a balance of monotony and change, and…