Arrival’s debut album, “An Abstract of Inertia”, contains eight well-played and well-structured songs with a good balance between aggression and melody, but unfortunately with a lack of own identity. While these Finnish newcomers play avant-garde dark metal, at least according to their record label Edgerunner Records, the music is in practice just mainly straightforward melodic black metal. Avant-garde influences are very hard to find and limited to a few keyboard melodies and a five-second techno interlude in the fourth song, “Under the Cloak of Darkness”. Despite this lack of avant-garde influences and despite the fact this album lacks its own identity, the album itself is decent enough, albeit extremely short (a mere 35 minutes). Aggressive black metal oriented guitar riffs are combined with slow bombastic parts and the use of well-placed lead breaks and very melodic interludes adds a catchy atmosphere to all the songs.

The whole album sounds in every way like the typical nowadays melodic black metal release; catchy guitar riffs, melodic dominant keyboards and repetitive choruses. The production of the album however is good, although slightly hollow, but certainly not in an annoying way and lends the album a professional sound. “An Abstract of Inertia” is a promising (but nothing really more than that) debut album from yet another new Finnish melodic black metal band. If Arrival plans to remain standing in the midst of the flood of melodic black metal bands, then their future releases will have to show more diversion but most of all more originality.