Up next is another rewind review and for this one, I thought I’d go back and re-review Arch Enemy. Again, for all those that only like them cause of their singer, did you know that at one point they had a guy singing? Now this is a band with some great albums so let’s see if I feel differently about any of them now and especially their newer material…….
Black Earth: going back and revisiting this one was awesome. I don’t remember it having such an old school Swedish death metal sound to it. Now there are some that have said that this should’ve been the follow up to Heartwork but I disagree. Carcass needed to make Swansong and this is a great album, it in no way sounds like a Carcass album.
Previous Score: 7.5/10
New Score: 8/10
Standouts: Bury Me An Angel, Dark Insanity, Transmigration Macabre
Stigmata- so here we kind of start to see them get into more of that melodic territory. I don’t remember that from the last time but it was nice to hear them start to become what they are kind of known for now. This one for some reason sort of reminds me of some of the earlier Soilwork albums.
Previous Score: 7.5/10
New Score: 8/10
Standouts: Stigmata, Sinsiter Mephisto, Dark Of The Sun
Burning Bridges- Johan Liiva’s vocals seem harsher on this one compared to the last two but I actually think this is the best that they’ve sounded up to this point. There’s a grittiness to this album that I also really like. Definitely their best with him on vocals and it’s really too bad that he left after this album. There’s also a really great live album called Burning Japan Live 99 which is a great companion album (it’s on the deluxe version of this album).
Previous Score: 8/10
New Score: 9.5/10
Standouts: The Immortal, Demonic Science, Silverwing
Wages Of Sin- ah yes the first with new singer Angela Gossow. I must say that when I first heard this one, I (like so many others) were blown away as to how badass she is as a vocalist. She definitely brings a brutality and aggression to the band. The songs are just so badass and this is one of their best albums yet.
Previous Score: 10/10
New Score: 10/10
Standouts: Enemy Within, The First Deadly Sin, Lament Of A Mortal Soul
Anthems Of Rebellion- this one kind of feels like it’s got a darker tone to it. This is the album that gave us the song We Will Rise and the video (yes music video) was always being played on Fuse or Headbangers Ball. Now aside from that song, the rest of the album is absolutely badass. It’s another one of their classic albums and one thing I didn’t pick up on last time was that this a very anthemic record.
Previous Score: 9/10
New Score: 10/10
Standouts: Despicable Heroes, Exist To Exit, End Of The Line
Doomsday Machine- this was my first introduction to Arch Enemy. I remember Fuse did an Ozzfest 2005 coverage thing and they showed the video for the song Nemesis and from then on, I was hooked. That song aside, this is Arch Enemy at their peak. This is just such a badass record and was a lot of fun to revisit. The guitar work is so damn good and they even get a guest solo from Gus G (who would play second guitar for them on their Ozzfest dates) and yes Angela does use vocal effects on here but they fit this album and she sounds awesome.
Previous Score: 10/10
New Score: 10/10
Standouts: Taking Back My Soul, Carry The Cross, Mechanic God Creation
Rise Of The Tyrant- maybe I’m hearing things differently but you can clearly hear that there are vocal effects or something going on with Angela’s vocals on this album. It’s weird and if anything, it sounds processed. Now while this one starts off great, it does have a good amount of filler. Lyrically, the songs are very reminiscent of Anthems Of Rebellion. Definitely not as good as I remember but a good album nonetheless.
Previous Score: 9/10
New Score: 7/10
Standouts: Rise Of The Tyrant, Blood On Your Hands, The Last Enemy
Root Of All Evil- ah yes when I heard that they were making an album of are-recorded material from the first three albums I was excited. Finally, I get to hear how Angela sounds singing the older songs and up until that point, you could only hear it live. Well when this album dropped, I was happy with the song choices, but the record seems so overproduced and the vocals can be kind of hard to listen to. Other than that, the album is not bad.
Previous Score: 7/10
New Score: 6.5/10
Standouts: Demonic Science, Pilgrim, Beast Of Man
Khaos Legions- I feel like this one tends to get overlooked. Yes it’s the last one with Angela on vocals but going back and listening to it again, there’s a good amount of gems here. Vocally, she doesn’t sound as processed as she did on Rise or Root. I found myself really enjoying this one a lot more than what I remember.
Previous Score: 6/10
New Score: 8.5/10
Standouts: Cruelty Without Beauty, Under Black Flags We March, Yesterday Is Dead And Gone
War Eternal- ah yes the first album with new singer with Alissa White-Gluz. Now I know she was picked by her predecessor but there just seems to be something missing. Not that it feels like a different band but just something lacking. Anyway the album is fine, it doesn’t exactly come out the gate guns blazing but overall, it’s ok.
Previous Score: 7/10
New Score: 6/10
Standouts: Never Forgive Never Forget, Time Is Black
Will To Power- this one sort of feels more of the same. There are some great songs on here but overall, this one is just ok. One thing that’s different is that we get the first clean vocals and I gotta say I get that they wanted to try something different but I don’t like clean vocals for this band. This is a band that didn’t have that kind of vocals and unless your a band say like Soilwork, then it fits but for this band, it feels weird and out of place.
Previous Score: 6.5/10
New Score: 5/10
Standouts: The Race, Murder Scene
Deceivers- this one is a step up sort of. It’s got better songs but this iteration of Arch Enemy just seems to lack the aggression that they had. Again, great moments and songs but as a whole this album is just ok. I’ll give this one 4/10
Standouts: The Watcher
Blood Dynasty- ok so at the time of this review, this album dropped today. Knowing that it would drop today, I thought it would be cool to update the review I did on the day the new album dropped. Anyway, Alissa’s harsher vocals are great and the guitar work is also great. That said, this album is also more aggressive than their last album but something that I am going to count against them is that there are clean vocals and this is a DEATH METAL band. There is even an entire song with clean vocals which in my opinion seems out of place. If I wanted to listen to this kind of music, I’d listen to a band like Jinjer or even Infected Rain. As I said before, this is a much more aggressive album but something seems to be missing. I’ll give this one a 6/10
Standouts: Illuminate The Path, March Of The Miscreants
There was a point in time where I felt that this band could do no wrong. Now it sort of seems that they are almost gimmicky. They were much much better when Angela was fronting the band and heck even when Johan was fronting the band they were better. Yes back in the early 2000’s, they were pioneers of having a female fronted death metal band but now there are much better female fronted death metal bands. Since Angela has stepped down, I saw them twice and both times it was pretty much the same set list. See that’s what gets me. It’s like they have all this great material and they don’t even play it. Don’t get me wrong, the musicianship in this band is great. Michael Amott is still a badass guitar player and I still love their earlier material but I really do miss the era when Angela and Christopher Amott still in the band.
Previous Final Grade: A
Final Grade: B+
Previous Album Rankings:
1. Doomsday Machine
2. Wages of Sin
3. Anthems of a Rebellion
4. Burning Bridges
5. Rise of the Tyrant
6. Black Earth
7. Khaos Legions
8. Stigmata
9. Root of All Evil
10. War Eternal
11. The World is Yours
New Album Rankings:
- Doomsday Machine
- Wages Of Sin
- Anthems Of Rebellion
- Burning Bridges
- Khaos Legions
- Black Earth
- Stigmata
- Rise Of The Tyrant
- Root Of All Evil
- Blood Dynasty
- War Eternal
- Will To Power
- Deceivers
Sinister Reviews 