Arch Enemy - Rise of the Tyrant
When it comes to reviewing movie sequels and albums by well established bands I always wonder how much time I should spend explaining what has come before. While Arch Enemy is huge within the metal community for this review I will assume you’ve never heard of them before nor the genre of music they perform. Melodic death metal is a music style that takes the down tuned brutal guitar riffs and harsh vocals of death metal and embellishes it with beautifully arranged guitar solos that climb and soar. Arch Enemy’s main contribution to the genre are politicized lyrics and dueling guitar solos coming together to produce some great anthems of rebellion.
In Rise of the Tyrant the band sounds sharper and more focused than ever. Vocalist Angela Gossow returns with an honest, raw and powerful delivery that puts her head and shoulders above most male death metal vocalists. Although you can hear her voice strain a little bit I feel that it lends authenticity to the subject matter she sings about. Meanwhile brothers Michael and Christopher Amott lay down energizing riffs that are bound to keep your head banging. Sharlee D’Angelo lends some extremely experienced bass work to the bands sound and coupled with Daniel Erlandsson’s fierce and precise drumming they pump adrenaline into every track.
The album gets off to a great start with Blood On Your Hands. After about 9 seconds of sirens the band explodes into one of its fastest and most brutal songs to date. On headphones the euphoria this track produces is instant. Even as the song starts to wind down it retains a certain magic similar to In Flames album Jester Race, an uncommon mixture of emotion and skill.
The Last Enemy has some great tempo changes but here is where you start to see one of the only flaws of the album. The guitar soloing is a bit too neoclassical, too in the vein of Yngwie Malmsteen. Still if you aren’t one of those poor bastards that only appreciates things ironically the solos will speak directly to some adolescent part of you and make it scream “wow, this is so cool!”
Now while some songs such as I Will Live Again sound formulaic I think the gamble they took on The Day You Died more than makes up for it. It’s a catchy and well written song that serves to expand Arch Enemies artistic repertoire without sacrificing any bit of what makes them so great. Don’t get me wrong, I can listen to them rage against the machine all day but in the end everybody benefits from a little bit of variety. It might be too soon to call this my pick for the year’s best album but I can guarantee this is one tough contender.