Sometimes everything goes the way you want, but at other times, it just seems like the world turns its back on you. That last thing happened to the German Deadlock when their grunter left the band after the release of Bizzaro World. The departure of Johannes Prem left a sour taste as he was the original singer before Sabine Scherer joined the band and he formed the foundation for the typical Deadlock sound. Luckily, brand new bass player John Gahlert seemed to have the perfect vocal chords to replace Prem.
The Arsonist is the first album with John Gahlert as new vocalist and from the first song, The Great Pretender, on, it's clear that nothing happened to Deadlock during those harsh years. The typical -metalcore with electronics - sound is still present. Also the variation between the clean vocals by Sabine and the grunts is still there. The only difference in Gahlert's voice is that it's a bit hoarser, but this perfectly suits the Deadlock sound.
Altogether, The Arsonist is once again a bitter sweet Deadlock record. Not better, nothing new, but the record proves that the Germans haven't backed down in the metal game.