What do you get when you put Arsonists Get All The Girls, Queen, System Of A Down, and Underoath together? If you’re anything like me, your answer would simply be “a headache”. How could one combine these sounds that have so little in common? Raleigh’s Called To Arms has found the way, and patch together a musical Frankenstein which does not mindlessly lumber around, ugly as sin, groaning at everything that moves. No, my friends, Called To Arms’ Frankenstein is a smokin’ hot babe who can fly, hot-wire a car in under ten seconds, and shred on lead guitar. All at the same time.

Formed in 2003 and signed to label Tragic Hero Records, Called To Arms has somewhat flown under the radar since their inception. With two releases already under their belt, this five-piece is set to release their third record based on C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters entitled Peril And The Patient on July 27th. Excited to hear something new, I sat down at my desk, plugged in my headphones and sipped my cold glass of milk as I was greeted by “Patient’s Prognosis”. The track contains multiple groovy, upbeat guitar riffs that will surely capture the listener’s attention as it did mine. Throughout the record, guitarists Brady Sweat and Jamie Nickerson lay down exciting, diverse, and exceptionally skilled guitar riffs which inject life into the music. Examples of their fresh and original style can be seen in almost every song of this album, but particularly exceptional tracks include “Pleasure In The Trough”, “Vintage Pharisee”, and “Let Sleeping Worms Lie”.

But Peril And The Patient doesn’t end its aural assault there, and unveils the second ace up its sleeve. The album sports some of the most catchy, powerful, and soaring guitar solos I have heard in a while. Not adhering to the usual sound of solos in the genre, Sweat and Nickerson’s times in the spotlight sound like they belong in Queen’s Greatest Hits album. Exceptionally skilled and driving, these solos inject even more life and power into a sound not devoid of it to begin with.

However, some of you die-hard deathcore fans may be reading this and thinking, “Great, but where’s the heaviness?” Well my friends, Called To Arms were thinking of you when they wrote “Safest Road To Hell” and “Our Realism, Our Rejection”, the former of those two featuring an absolutely skull-crushing synth-fueled breakdown, while “Our Realism, Our Rejection” is almost three straight minutes of pure heaviness. But it doesn’t stop there, throughout the album, the listener will stumble across beautiful, atmospheric, and uncompromising buildups that usually lead to a solo or exhilarating refrain. This ethereal tone carries over into “Ashamed, Awake”, an elegant four minutes featuring clean, sung vocals, strong lyrical content, and a great, hook laden chorus. For those of you with a softer side, this track will certainly appeal. Another standout in Peril And The Patient is the excellent musicianship of keys/vox man Daniel Grissom. His piano work imbues that extra bit of composure to the more airy parts of the music while at the same time is able to bring heavy, hard-hitting synth tunes to the bottom end of a song.

Peril And The Patient has without a doubt made my list of favorite albums. If you’re looking for exciting, relentless, diverse, and powerful metal then look no further. Called To Arms dishes out a stellar helping of awesome by fusing together a plethora of heavy metal sub-genres, all the while keeping a varied, original and interesting sound. Do the band a favor and buy the album, this underrated act deserves it.

4.5/5