ARCH ENEMY „Anthems Of Rebellion”

Music: Melodic Death Metal
Duration: 35:00 minutes (9 songs)
Good songs: All overkill, but Death Eyes See No Future fucking over-overkills!

Sorry guys, I couldn't wait, I downloaded the album. But don't worry, I'll buy it later, as soon as it's available here. Arch Enemy is just too damn good to wait for, especially when it's so damn long. So for now, I sit at my desk and play this bitch LAUD.

In my humble opinion, Arch Enemy is the best Gothenburg death band after Dark Tranquilly, however these two almost stand equal. I have always liked Arch Enemy, but when they released “Wages Of Sin” I started to LOVE this band! I never thought they would be able to set anything loose upon this world that is better than that masterpiece, but apparently they did. Anthems Of Rebellion is one of those great, and maybe legendary Swedish death albums, like Dark Tranquillity's “Damage Done” or Nightrage's “Sweet Vengeance”.

Like all better Gothenburg death, the music consists of two main elements: aggressiveness/heaviness and Melody. On this album, the aggressiveness is created by the brilliant guitar work of Michael Amott and his brother Christopher who are both some of the best guitarists this world has to offer. Drummer Daniel Erlandsson is delivering outstanding performances, constantly changing and taking full use of his talent, skills and double bass peddle kit. Angela Gossow's Divine grunt work also contributes in the aggressiveness. Bassist Sharlee D'Angelo's function is to create the dark and melodic undertone. I hate it when band forget that they have a bassist, but this is definitely not the case here.

The melodic aspect of the album is created by the magnificent melodies, STUNNING dual-guitar harmonies and often rock solid, raging rhythms. Angela's voice is one of the best in the world, she manages to bark out words very well articulated, but extremely aggressive too, and on top of that, she can add a great emotional load to the lyrics. Speeds on this album vary form fast and mauling, to more common tempos that create a simple form of sadness on the album.

Compared to the previous album, the synths are more in place, and blend very well into the music. In short, this album is contains (like “Wages Of Sin”) all what can be expected of a stunning album: crushing riffs, AMAZING solo's, unmatched musicianship, melody, aggressiveness, harmony, emotion and lyrics that go further than just the I'll-kill-you texts that are used in too many bands. However, there is some more on Anthems Of Rebellion, that “Wages Of Sin” didn't have; there are some great acoustic parts on this disk, sometimes (but not too often) not with very strong melodies, but all manage to create magnificent atmospheres.

Still I think I miss something on this album, I think Arch Enemy can do more than this. If the album was perfect; some melancholy was also blended in, for example if Angela would use clean vocals somewhere. If she could smoothly change her screaming into gothic singing, that could really work to create some melancholy and sadness on this album. I hope to hear that on the next album, and since AE have the habit of making their albums better than the last one, I have (this time) no doubt that it will turn out to be just as good or better than this one.

note: 9.5/10

Tracklist

01 Tear Down The Walls (Intro)
02 Silent Wars
03 We Will Rise
04 Dead Eyes See, No Future
05 Instinct
06 Leader Of The Rats
07 Exist To Exit
08 Marching On A Dead End Road (Instrumental)
09 Despicable Heroes
10 End Of The Line
11 Dehumanization
12 Anthem (Instrumental)
13 Saints And Sinners