The 2012 Arsies: February 6, 2012

February 6, 2012

Today's battle was a really tough one, very nearly a draw. Follow my thought processes, to understand why:
Does either “Worship Music” or “One” stand out as the album that I'd rather not live without, relatively speaking? No; they're both winners. Is either more original than the other? Not really; both take a few steps away from their respective genres (thrash and djent) while still satisfying their base fulfillments. Would mixing the albums together on Shuffle make the choice any clearer? Nope. Do they both make you nod your head, savagely at times? You betcha.
The one thing that does make a decisive enough difference in this dead heat? It's TesseracT's “Concealing Fate” suite, which certainly belongs in the djent pantheon right next to Meshuggah's “Catch Thirty-Three”. Because of that, while the Anthrax album is certainly a pleaser, it does not quite measure up to TesseracT's stunning debut. And so, two days in a row, the nerdy geeks with glasses find themselves winning over more brawny fare. Whether they will go up against each other remains to be seen next week in the Final.
But in the meantime, DevilDriver goes up against The Human Abstract tomorrow. Think you know who's gonna win that one? Because right now I sure don't!