Review by JD on August 13, 2009.

Buffalo, NY based Siege A.D. has been touted to be a sort of bridging point between the melodic crush of Iron Maiden and the sheer pommelling power of Lamb Of God. That is sort of a true assessment... but not it is not at the same time.

Siege A.D. may have some fairly clear similarities with the likes of Lamb Of God, but that is only a little for me. What I am actually hearing, I think they are way closer musically to very early Sepultura (before the tribal beats) and add in a serious touch of Cannibal Corpse pounding rhythms into it as well as some Dark Angel as well. The whole ‘maiden’ comparisons seemed not to be there.

Solid and meaty songs coupled with the fact that they did not over produce the album, made the over all atmosphere nearly perfect. It clearly is the fact that there is that whole simpleness and sparseness throughout the CD, which makes it work so damned well. So many bands in this style of metal do this when recording, to the point that it takes away the barbaric brutality that this music was born to release. Siege A.D. do not forget that point, and make that there sound.

They do not break any new ground musically, but they do the whole Thrash/Death thing so good. Songs like the head cranking ‘Bipolar’ or the sledgehammer like attack of ‘Forged In War‘ is just the few of many examples of that.

When it all said and done here... this is album that most headbangers would be proud to have in their collection. I thought they were great... now I hope they go to Godly status. Because they have the talent to do so.

Categorical Rating Breakdown　

Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 8
Production: 9
Originality: 7
Overall: 8.5　

Rating: 8.1 out of 10

Review by Adam M on May 24, 2018.

The music that Ihsahn performs is full of variety and vitality.  Amr gets off to a great start with songs like Sámr and continues on a nice path.  There is a large variety of emotions that come to the forefront on this disc.  The band can be scathing, but at other times they are an altogether more gentle beast. 

The singing on the album also alternates between harsher and more gentle moments to form a solid springboard for the rest of the performances.  Instrumentally, guitars are solid and form the backdrop nicely for the rest of the material.  They have a sweeping aura to them that is wonderful to behold.  This isn’t really different instrumentally from past Ihsahn discs, however, and makes for more of the same.  Alternatively, there seemed to be unexplored territory to venture to on Arktis.  On here it seems like most of the avenues have been explored to their fullest potential.  Don’t get me wrong, this is still a very interesting album, it’s just that the Ihsahn material is starting to sound a bit samey at times.  The songs sound sort of electronic in nature, but they are definitely more normal sounding that the disappointing Das Seelenbrechen album.  Although the album is good, it is far from the level that Ihsahn achieved on Eremita and After.  This is somewhat disappointing that he can’t match his best anymore and is able to only put out solid albums. 

Still, with the lack of bands that sound like Ihsahn, it’s nice to get new material from him whenever we can.  Hopefully, he can venture into his progressive bag of tricks and make something altogether more compelling the next time around.  The amount of quality material that Ihsahn has on offer now surpasses his material from the band Emperor, however.

Rating: 7.6 out of 10