Review by Michael on January 2, 2021.

The Ukrainian band Arhat presents us with their debut album Dead Life just in time for Christmas. I have to admit that until now I knew the Ukrainian metal scene only through various black metal bands like Drudkh, Hate Forest or Nokturnal Mortum. However, Arhat go musically in a completely different direction, according to the label they play groove metal.

The intro knows how to grab the listener already, 'Dead Life' is a very catchy death metal track, which shows directly where the hare runs. 'Outcast' bangs after a short tribal drum intermezzo the auditory canals of the listeners free from all that doesn't belong there and the singer screams his frustration from the soul so that you do not even want to know what his problem is.The whole thing reminds me of the new Sepultura album. 'Arhat' is a pretty cool grooving mid tempo track that features female ethno vocals in the middle and a really cool riff. 'Maximalism' reminds me in parts of the instruments of newer Overkill, pretty cool stuff.

However, there are also two songs that fall a bit behind - 'Stately Ruins' and 'Mantra' are, in my humble opinion, a bit more unspectacular in terms of musical quality than the rest. If you like more groovy (death) metal albums (like I said, Overkill, Sepultura (but I don't mean the "Roots..") or even old DevilDriver),.... then this album might be something for you. I think that the band has released a pretty solid album here, which will hopefully also find some fans!!!

Now the only question left is the name. According to Wikipedia "Arhat" is "a term for a practitioner who, according to Buddhist ideas, has completely discarded greed, hatred and delusion. He will not be reborn again by reaching nirvana." Well, when I hear the singer like that, I can't quite imagine the hatred thing....

Rating 8.4 out of 10