### Arbitrator: The consummate ascendancy

#### 17/05/11 || Lord K Philipson

During the recording of this I have been asked for pointers and thoughts from the guy in charge of the project. Obviously, and rightfully so, I am a superhero to this kid – all thanx to my work with The Project Hate MCMXCIX (the dude’s been covering a ton of solos from TPH as well as tabbing a bunch of tunes) and Torture Division. I fully understand why as well since there’s quite no one like me. I could go on with praising myself for hours and hours but I’ll make a quickie about this demo instead, to make sure you get your eyes opened up to Arbitrator. And no, I will not sugarcoat shit here. It doesn’t matter that this dude understands my greatness. You always get honesty point fucken blank from me. I guess that’s why I am so goddamned loved.

Obviously I’m not only a superhero, but also quite an influence to this guy when it comes to creating actual music. I am flattered. Not surprised, I am an influence to many a human being, you know. I think what Rob Kukla (yeah, that’s the kid’s name) creates with Arbitrator is what I would have created weren’t I as talented as I am. And I mean that in a good way actually, contrary to what you might think. Hear me the fuck out: this fucko is like 18 years old or so, and “The consummate ascendancy” is his first offering. Lemme tell ya that I didn’t record anything of this quality when I was 18.

Dan Swanö did the mix of this, by the way, just like he does TPH and Torture Division, and TPH-webmaster/5th member Statik Majik’s provided the visual packaging. Musically you find the obvious TPH-influences with loops, strings and electronics among the brutal riffs and grunting vocals (unfortunately over-processed in Arbitrator’s case). Oh, the songs are long too, fuck did you think? You won’t come across any female vocals though, just so you know. See? I told ya, we are quite the inspiration.

What does it all come down to then? Is this a rip-off of the sound I have created with TPH? Absolutely not, we sound nothing alike though the ideas and the package are clearly taken from us. Rob’s got some great chops when it comes to playing guitar and his voice (though, as mentioned, insanely processed – making it come across with a hideous lisp) is rough and a perfect fit for what he’s doing. The programmings and electronics sound ok but all of this in combination comes across as a little confusing at times since I don’t get that natural flow that I am am after in compositions like this. Sure, some might say that about the music I create for TPH, but you know what? They are wrong and absolutely retarded. I am the master at this and you should know it by now.

It’s nice to have a guy with these visions who’ll prolly just get better and better with each recording he makes. “The consummate ascendancy” is a fucken impressive first step and I wish the guy all the fucken best with his future endeavors. The talent is there, and obviously – so is the will.

Good work, kid.

- Information
- Released: 2011
- Website: Arbitrator MySpace
- Band
- Robert Kukla: everything but drums
- Corey Chernesky: drums… duh

- Tracklist
- 01. Into the eternal flames
- 02. Suffer his unrelenting dominion