ARCH ENEMY „The Root Of All Evil”

Music: Melodic death metal
Website: http://www.archenemy.net
Country: Sweden
Duration: 1:08:53 (13 songs + 3 bonus live tracks)
Cool Songs: Beast of Man, Diva Satanica, Silverwing

As the first introductory track begins, it seems to be the calm before the storm; an instrumental minute and seven seconds of wondering exactly what the fuck to expect from ARCH ENEMY’s eighth studio album. For this is no ordinary effort from the Sweden-based metal titans. Instead they’ve taken twelve of the old favourites from the first three albums with previous vocalist Johan Liiva (“Black Earth”, “Stigmata” and “Burning Bridges”), dusted them off a bit and put a blonde haired, blue eyed, arse kicking she-wolf at the helm.

“The Root Of All Evil” tracklist is a roll call of ARCH ENEMY’s best efforts before Angela Gossow promoted them to metal household names. It kicks off with “Beast of Man”, which was already a stand-out track previously, and now Daniel Erlandsson pounds the double bass drum with all the ferocity of a machine gun assault. Sharlee D’Angelo was not present in the original lineup either, it should be noted, but his bass licks provide a sturdy backbone for the axe-weilding Amott brothers’ beefed-up riffage. Although Gossow’s vocals sound a little unnatural in the beginning, the rest is beautifully fiendish enough to arouse Satan himself.

You only have to listen to the lyrics to realise “Diva Satanica” was practically written for Gossow, while in her most vocally adventurous effort, her piercing screams transcend into her trademark demonic growls of a woman possessed. As with the previous ARCH ENEMY albums she appeared on, she once again delivers her skilled vocal clarity and rhythm on this one as well, something which Liiva’s efforts were distinctly lacking. For a long time now, current live staples like “Bury Me An Angel” and “The Immortal” have been well and truly Angela-fied, and now look destined to become even more popular after this revamping. It’s fairly safe to say she’s claimed ownership of this material and rightly so; each and every track is ten times as solid as it was before.

Now that their feet are well and truly planted in the soil of metal veterans they eminate sheer confidence in their musicianship, and some would argue they’d taken a brave leap in disturbing Liiva’s legacy, but ARCH ENEMY have well and truly upped the ante with “The Root Of All Evil”, demonstrating that pure fucking metal such as this never ages, even more than a decade later.

“Johan who?” I hear you ask. Exactly.

note: 9/10

Tracklist

1. The Root Of All Evil (intro)
2. Beast Of Man
3. The Immortal
4. Diva Satanica
5. Demonic Science
6. Bury Me An Angel
7. Dead Inside
8. Dark Insanity
9. Pilgrim
10. Demonality
11. Transmigration Macabre
12. Silverwing

Line-up

Angela Gossow – vocals
Michael Amott – guitar
Christopher Amott – guitar
Sharlee D'Angelo – bass
Daniel Erlandsson – drums