History & Biography Alingsås, Sweden boasts death/thrash metal band Arise whose name was inspired by the Sepultura album of the same name. The band comprised of three Holocaust members and initially was nothing more than a covers band. The group’s early vocalist Jörgen Sjölander was only within the ranks for a year before being replaced by Björn Andvik who would last a similar length of time. A demo called Arise was recorded in 1998 followed by 1999’s Statues. Next came Resurrection and 2000’s Abducted Intelligence. This last album was recorded by Andy LaRocque at his Los Angered Studio. A recording contract was procured through Finland’s Spinefarm and the band was at Studio Mega recording a debut, whose cover artwork was handled by Dark Tranquillity’s Niklas Sundin. This debut persisted the Swedes’ futuristic theme and emphasis. The gang toured with Vader, Deranged and Arkhon Infaustus in 2003. Arise opened for three shows for Morbid Angel in Sweden in 2005. After three albums on Spinefarm the band fired long-time singer and guitarist Erik Ljungqvist as well as bassist Patrik Skoglöw. It took four years for a new album to appear on a new label, Regain Records of Southern Sweden. A 2009 tour with Avatar and Diabolical was cancelled in March. The band descended into oblivion.
Reviews ARISE - THE RECKONING - REGAIN RECORDS 
The nearly two-minute opener/intro starts off scaring the listener with Fear Factory sounds, but is basically an At The Gates - and countless other Swedish intense screaming - song. Despite The Reckoning being a fourth album, Arise, is not that well known. Songs do not deviate much from the aforementioned school of metal. No Memory Of Light continues the screams of typical sometimes melodic but mostly unrelenting push. Blindead reveals a bit more of an Arch Enemy influence in riffing, structure and melody. They Are Coming For You is also a cross between Anthems Of Rebellion and Slaughter Of The Soul but does step outside of that with a few moments of blasts, however that is somewhat compensated with some rehearsal like moments where Arise seemingly break into a jam session. Pitch Black is a forgettable one and sounds like a 2:45 long experimental song insisting on stuffing Korn and Metallica into The Reckoning. The title track restores some of the damage done. Reclaiming The Soul re-enforces the At The Gates influence and includes catchy guitar riffs. The Fury does the same but quicker and therefore inevitably faster when running at less than three minutes. Dead Silence doesn’t add much for 2009 or Sweden. End Of Days is slightly more thrashy and is listed as eight and a half minutes but this closer is not any longer than the rest at around five minutes. Inevitably though the last minute of the supposed eight minutes is taken up by a movie sample (?). The Reckoning is solid but is neither spectacular nor original. - Anna Tergel
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