Live Review 007-Arsonists Get All The Girls

 

Live performance:***     Times Seen:1

Hits From The Bow (2006):7.4

The Game of Life (2007):8.6

Portals (2009):8.6

Motherland (2011):8.4

Listen To The Color (2013):8.5

Genre:Progressive Deathcore

Genre 2:Scenegrind 

Genre 3:Electronica/Experimental

Genre 4:Mathcore

For Fans Of:Iwrestledabearonce, Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza, Horse The Band, Heavy Heavy Low Low

Status-Nobody knows!!           Currently unsigned

Formed in 2005(-2014?)

Arsonists Get All The Girls is one of the few bands that I couldn’t fucking STAND when I first heard them. All of the cookie-cutter bands I listened to in 2008 couldn’t have prepared me for the vocal style of Remi Rodberg on The Game of Life. I hated it, but for some reason kept it on my IPod. A few weeks or months later I heard the amazing synth creation that is the intro to Robando De Los Muertos and instantaneously fell in love.

Soon after that, Arsonists Get All The Girls would become one of my favorite bands around when Portals came out. This album was an obsession for me. Now I’m glad to say I have that freaky album art on a T-shirt. Arsonists hail from Santa Cruz, California. They have toured with a lot of bands from all over from The Last Ten Seconds of Life to Carnifex, Bleeding Through, Darkest Hour and many, many more.

Discography Overview

Right from the start of listening to Hits From The Bow one can recognize this band has a sense of humor-no, upon seeing the band’s name one can recognize this. But despite that, their music is pretty serious, especially in their later more progressive influenced albums. The coolest thing about this band in my opinion, is their creative song writing. Their music isn’t incredibly technical or erratic, but skillfully woven riffs,  pounding drums, vocals, bass and synth.This album marks the beginning of Arsonist’s attempts at progressive and jazzy interludes/outros such as the ones found in “You’re Gonna Get it Dirty Shirley” and “Shat Shart Tart”. Yeah that’s right, a “core” band that makes good use of their synth player. They also utulize their interlude elements better than most core bands that try. This album is bouncy and fun, with the occasional cool parts, but it certainly doesn’t have much of a lasting appeal on most listeners. 

Their second release, the aforementioned Game of Life, was the first album I heard. It might take a while to get used to the harsh vocals of this band, but they’re certainly experimenting in ways that a lot of deathcore bands haven’t dared to try at this time. The guitar work is improved, and the synth work feels superior. I would even go as far as to characterize this album as a more successful attempt at what the band seemed to strive for with their debut. Right from the start of this album the band hits you with a rising tension through the intro track “Business in The Front” until it explodes during “13  Year Old Ruby”. The musical fusions embedded into this album also feel 100% natural, where in the debut they did feel a tad bit forced at times. From lyrics, to synth patterns, to guitar riffs, this album is pretty damn catchy. It’s definitely the type of album you enjoy the more you listen to it.

Where The Game of Life is wild and erratic, Portals is the focused effort with less grind elements and more deathcore. Talk about progression, this band truly gets more and more progressive each album. For some people that might not be a good thing, but to those people I must say.. IDWU. This album is solid as hell, but unlike the previous album I do feel like there are 2 or 3 filler songs that didn’t really grab me. Despite that, I still don’t consider any of the songs to be bad. The drumming isn’t as technical as the last two albums, but the guitar work is, almost like a trade off of sorts. But the drumming is still good enough to do it’s job. This album also has a different sound because it is the first one with their new vocalist Jared after the departure of Remi. 

Their next album was Motherland, which is considered to be Arsonists Get All The Girls’ best album by many, even though it wasn’t the most popular. Right from the first track “Rise To Fall” you will realize that the band has matured their sound even more. This song encompasses all that AGATG is. It has an awesome breakdown, blast beats, synth patterns and a eery outro. Basically if you don’t like this song, there is a strong possibility you won’t ever care for anything this band has done. The best song on this album is hands down West Cliffs, which is an all keys and drums song. It’s catchy and you can swing dance to it. It’s arguably one of their best songs too. It actually almost makes you sad that they don’t make more beautiful songs like this.

The last album AGATG put out was Listen to the Color, which was actually a huge step in a new direction. This album’s ridiculous album art just goes to show how diverse and insane this album is. They crowdfunded this album on Bandcamp and it came out really nice. There’s a nice nostalgic Mario Kart Double Dash intro thrown in there too. They achieved the nintendocore sound they wanted all the way back in 2005. It’s an interesting mix to hear, so much grind and post-metal used on one album. One of the coolest vibes in this album, is a surfer undertone mostly heard in guitar riffs throughout. It’s just cool to hear a "surf-metal" style. Just as fast as the album hits you it’s over with an incredible post-metal feeling song to top it all off. If this is the last song ever for the band, it’s an awesome way to freaking go out! 

Live Review

Unfortunately, after waiting about 5 years to see them, Arsonists were not all that I hoped for. Their sound live was very sloppy. Almost to the point where I had difficulty in recognizing which song was which.  And while I’d love to blame it on the venue, my friends in Refuge who played that night had no sound issues at all. Despite one of the worst touring band sounds ever, Arsonists Get All The Girls did NOT disappoint with their presentation. They had a stage presence that could rival The Dillinger Escape Plan themselves. In fact, I took note that the guitarist was wearing a DEP shirt. He had a wireless guitar so he took part in the circle pit experience, while Remi joined in too at one point. Their ecstatic stage presence and playing some of my favorite hits did make the show a little better. Considering this is the only time I’ve gotten to see them, I still have hope that if they tour again and perhaps have a better sound guy they will put on an amazing well sounding performance for me.

Recommended tracks(Chronological album order):You’re Gonna Get it Dirty Shirley, Shat Shart Tart.
13 Year Old Ruby,Robando De Los Muertos*,So You Think You Know About The Game of Life. Cuffed To The Ankles,To Playact In Static, Tea Tibbens (First part), In The Empyreans, Lost My Loss of Ruin   Rise To Fall*, Dr. Teeth, West Cliffs*, Hemlock Like This, Tempest ,Bottle City, MK-Delta:Glorified Killers(Feat ex vocalist Cameron Reed),Balloon Battle, Sunny Places For Shady People