Billed as 'Modern Metal' and hailing from Vienna, Austria this is Artas's second full-length album and from the beginning it sounds far stronger than the first (The Healing). Where The Healing fell down was its lack of focus (and strange cover song choices) but there's none of that with Riotology- although the songs are diverse, they all have a basic thrash core.
This is a fairly extensive album (16 tracks no less!) but the songs tie together fairly well and all manage to feel like they belong on the album, without sounding so similar that the album gets boring.

Surprisingly, the vocals for the album are in numerous languages (including German, Spanish, English and French) so unfortunately only someone reasonably fluent in these languages will be able to comprehend the lyrical meaning behind some of the songs. Nevertheless, the vocal performance is excellent and encompasses traditional singing, full-on screaming and death metal growls.

This album contains a ridiculous amount of riffage which draws on both thrash and metalcore influences in terms of styling. Indeed, some of these songs err on the side of metalcore, with heavy verses and soaring, big choruses. The death metal element of Artas's sound has survived nonetheless, with blast beats still featuring to some extent in most songs.

A particular highlight is the fourth track 'The Suffering Of John Doe' which has quite a few changes in terms of style and tempo and some excellent vocals.

The production on this album in general is pretty good, although some of the guitar parts sound a bit weak and thin when the rest of the band stops playing. The sheer number of songs may put some people off, but there are no ridiculously long tracks- most of them range from 3 minutes - 5 minutes with a few exceptions either side.

The only fault with this album is the lack of truly brilliant tracks. Pretty much every song is good... just not great. Although some tracks come close to this boundary, they never quite cross it.

On the whole a fairly solid album which is definitely worth a listen, even if you weren't impressed with their previous work.

Album Rating: 7/10
Best Tracks: The Suffering of John Doe, Rassenhass, The Grin Behind The Mirror
For fans of: Hatesbreed, traditional Thrash and Deathcore