Santa Cruz sextet
Arsonists Get All the Girls embody the short attention span of an entire generation with their sophomore opus,
The Game of Life, which hop-scotches incessantly from one musical style to another, giving listeners little chance to latch onto anything before squirming out of their tenuous grasp like so many slippery tadpoles. Indeed, even listing all of the band's stylistic touchstones would be a futile exercise in itself, as
Arsonists Get All the Girls essentially expound multiple-personality disorder as a way of life when it comes to their music. Not even the sanctity of individual songs are respected, and it's therefore not uncommon for tracks such as "Cuffed to Your Ankles" to shift abruptly from atonal, free-form death metal into mournful melodies and regimented clean riffs. Others careen wildly (but never sit down and stay awhile) into realms of lounge-jazz ("13 Year Old Ruby"), pure hardcore ("To Get Eaten by Rats"), and the avant-funk metal of
Faith No More ("Save the Castle, Screw the Princess"). And, needless to say, the band's lyrics (generally consisting of Cookie Monster growls or enraged screaming) also tend to the absurd, and its only their clever use of unexpected synthesizer lines amid the general mayhem (see "Tourtasia" and "Claiming Middle Age a Decade Early," etc.) that makes them remotely original (earning contextual relevance alongside the Nintendo-core of fellow Californians
Horse the Band). But, ultimately,
The Game of Life's main attraction is catering to the attention deficiencies of its intended target audience, and that hardly spells a god recipe for attracting a loyal following, or enjoying a lengthy career. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia